Go East ALOT Crew

So now we are in catch up mode because Friday we spent in the airport jetting off to another land, that land…. The Czech Republic. That's right, due east of France on the other side of Germany is where we woke up Saturday morning. We are staying in the university dorms in Prague. Not the fanciest digs we've seen but a pillow and a shower so no reason to complain. The university works a lot with the University of Missouri. In fact, we've seen several students from MU here on the college exchange program. Seems like a great opportunity for the young folks to expand their horizons. In hind sight, would have been an intelligent move while I was in college. I didn't take the opportunity then, but thankfully I've had the chance to experience other cultures through my career in broadcasting.
Saturday we spent the day on campus visiting with university professors about the Czech Republic and the country's ag industry. We pulled together some interesting details too. As you can tell, Jeremy Hayward, an agronomist with MFA, Tim Coppage with Cargill Grain and Glenn Cope, a cattle producer from Southwest Missouri were all paying close attention.
According to Professor Cibulka, there are several interesting differences between the US and the CR. For example, in Czech pork is the number one product on dinner tables and coming in second is poultry. It also turns out that fresh water fish production is very popular. According to Cibulka the top fresh water fish in the country is actually Carp.
Another example, sheep are not used for wool production in the CR because wool is a cheap import from New Zealand and Australia. Instead Czech farmers use sheep primarily for milk production which is then used for cheese. So the next big question, where's the beef? Apparently the cost of beef is so high it's not on the top list for dinner plates in the country.
We did get to tour around the city a little over the weekend. Like France, the place is full of history and amazing architecture. My camera pooped out on me but I did get a couple shots in beforehand.











































Now for other comparisons.. In France last week the cost of food seemed crazy high. Of course the US dollar is weak compared with the Euro. That has some impact on food prices, but the food in France just in general is more expensive. If you were just paying for the food in US dollars without any conversion it was still much higher than the US. In the Czech Republic, although they are a member of the European Union but they don't use the Euro. Instead they still use their own currency which is referred to as Crown. The dollar is stronger than the Crown and, for many of us, our exchange rate was about 13 Crown to 1 US dollar. That sounds good when you get a large number of bills to fill your wallet, but over the weekend we noticed the cost of food and some other items in the Czech Republic are still more expensive than the United States. For example, yesterday we wanted a little taste of home so we had a quick stop at a fast food chain found that can also be found in the United States.
Two pieces of chicken, two sodas, and two fries, averaged about $17 US dollars. In addition, they wanted an additional 60 cents to add ketchup for the fries.

We chose not to have ketchup just because it's wrong.

A Day on the Farm...

From Marsaille we traveled up to the Aix-en-Provence to visit with representatives of the Agriculture industry including President of the National Farmers Union. In the meeting they shared information of how the country deals with farm subsidies. Our first speaker was Claude Rossignol is the Vice President of the Chamber of Agriculture and President of the Regional Farmers Union.

According to some notes from the meeting here are a few things jotted down…
Farmers in France receive 17 Euro's per cubic meter for water. By some rough calculations that's about 201 gallons.
On average, it's about 20,000 Euros for a hectare of tillable farmland with no improvements to the land.
The average farm subsidy is 300 Euro's per hectare.
The average income for farmers in Provence is 29,000 Euros, and 5000 of that is subsidy payment.
Another point made, in the United States, a large portion of consumers can purchase food by choice, i.e. a family who only eats organic products. In France the food purchase is based on price.
Following the meeting we climbed aboard the bus and traveled out of town to an olive farm/winery. Prior to this visit I knew very little about olives except that I don't like to eat them, but we had a very interesting tour and now I even know what an olive tree looks like.
Turns out the olive tree is pretty common in landscaping throughout the area. According to Haccuria, on average an olive tree will produce 180 kilo of olives and generate about 30 liters of olive oil. In 1996 when they created their own olive mill they were converting 100 lbs of olives to 10,000 liters of olive oil. In 2008 the farm will convert 1000 lbs of olives into 100,000 liters of oil through the olive mill you see here.
It takes about one hour to extract the oil from the olive and the by product of seed hull and olive skin is reapplied to the farm acreage to use as fertilizer.
On the Château Virant farm they also produce wine. Like the olive trees the grape vines are located only steps away from their processing facility. Christine attempted to give some insider grape production tips to ALOT members Jay Chism with the University Missouri Extension and Dan Devlin, a row crop producer from Edina, Missouri.
Another little note about wine production, grape harvest begins around August 10th with the same crew they employ for olive harvest. The grapes are slowly squeezed to the juiced can be extracted from the fruit. Once the grape has gone through the necessary process, the product will be in a vat for 10 to 12 hours. For red wine the time in the vat is three weeks. That allows the color of the grape skin to affect the color of the wine.
When you're on a farm, no matter what the commodity, John Crawford with Hamilton State Bank proved farmers still like to check out the farm "toys".

You can take the farm boy out of the "country," but you can't take the country out of the farm boy!!

I'll be back...

Since it's a weekend I'm trying to play catch up. We've jetted off to another location but there's still more to share from France before I reveal too much about today.
On Wednesday morning we hopped aboard the 125mph Bullet train to head south. Train travel is very common throughout Europe and with the view and the comfortable roomy ride I can understand why. Our trip to Marseille, along the southern coast of France, was another brief visit. When we arrived I had 10 minutes to send in a report and change clothes so that explains why there were no pictures. Right away we enjoyed an hour long guided tour around the city. OOhhhhh and what a city it is! Before I get started on pictures, I'm using two different cameras and I seem to keep forgetting which camera I used on which shot. The problem with that, one is digital and the other is 35mm. There are more images that I'd like to share, but I guess not until they are developed.
Just along the coast the group bailed out of the bus to enjoy the breath taking view.
What appears to be the city's highest point is home to another beautiful church. We climbed the zillion steps to enjoy the view and hear the history of the landmark from our tour guide.













The church has been through extensive renovation in recent years. After several million dollars, it's beauty is comparable to the scenery that surrounds it. Inside the church you'll find detail in every inch with gold plated features and mosaic tile everywhere. By the way, every piece of mosaic tile used on the floor, walls and ceiling was no more than a half inch each. It's so finely detailed it didn't even look like mosaic.

















And we all soaked in as much of the view as possible. Here's Janine Darby, a grain and hay producer from Madison, Missouri.









I would say, "Mom, send me money, I'm not leaving," but they've already hauled me to another location and it's a long walk back. Following our tour of the city we visited the Marseille Chamber of Commerce, the first Chamber created in the world. It's very active organization that strives to increase the awareness and success of this gorgeous region. The chamber is located in a large beautiful building overlooking one of the main city streets and it's just a block from the marina. In 2013 they will host the cultural center of Europe, so they have a great location to welcome guests.












This is one of the beautiful rooms on the top floor where we enjoyed cocktails and hors d'oeuvres (some were delicious, others had anchovies…. Need I say more?).
The gentleman on the right is Charles Goemaere with the Chamber. I don't have her name, but the young lady is an International Attaché for the US Embassy and standing to her right is William Peterson, an International Lawyer and President of the Mediterranean Business Network. Taking in the conversation is ALOT member Rebecca Townsend who works for Dow Jones Newswires.

Oh, Sweet Paree'

France, what a beautiful region. It's been an amazing week experiencing the French countryside, agriculture industry, interesting people and gaining knowledge of a region I know little about. As I type this I'm sitting in the airport in Marseille, France along the Mediterranean coast. Time has been tight the last couple days so I still have photos to post of Paris!!! We had a very short time in the city of romance and fashion, but it was a neat place to swing through. This is just one of the many amazing Cathedrals that are located throughout France.













In the media we hear quite often that the European countries are environmentally friendly and the rumor appears to carry some weight. There are a lot of roofs that have trees and plants growing on them… not in pots but as a roof. The front of building had just about every plant you could imagine covering the wall all the way to the top. Not only environmentally friendly, but it gave the building an unusual texture and color with flowers and shades of greene.

















Just down the street was the giant piece of architecture we were looking for. The Eiffel Tower proved to be even more massive than I ever imagined.


















I would guess at least four large town squares could fit in the base of the tower. We chose the less ambitious route for getting to the top. They have a large tram like thing that about 40 people could fit in. You have the choice to go to the first deck or the top deck. I went to the top deck to soak in the sunset...










You know Paris is a big city, but when you are that high above the sky and can't see the city limits, you know they're lot of people. To prove it, here's a look to the east...













And when we finally came down, it was getting dark...






As I have previously mentioned, the blue lights on the tower are reported to be in honor of France taking over the Presidential position in the European Union.
I love to take pictures and when I travel I also like to catch a shot of the hotel rooms I stay in. I failed to do that the last couple of times, but I did take this picture outside the window of our magnificent room in Paris…














And looking the other direction...








That's Carroll County farmer Aubrey Famuliner who was in the room next door. We didn't lean out the window too far. It's the fourth floor!
The following morning we packed up again and left town on a Bullet Train to southern France. Everywhere you look, what a view!! I'm a little behind on the pictures, but we've relocated to another country where I should have regular internet access. I can't wait to share pictures of some of the meals we've had. Yes, David I know you'll appreciate that!!

By the way, thanks so much for your comments. I apologize for not sending notes back but please know I love to hear your thoughts!!

Heading South

We've covered thousands of miles already and it's only day 3. Of course many of those miles were on a plane to get here in the first place. Tuesday we made the trek back to Paris and had the unique opportunity to visit the US Embassy in Paris, but we were not allowed to take any pictures. I saw a lady get in trouble for taking pictures across the street, so between that and the guns the guards were carrying, I decided not to risk taking a photo.
During out visit we me with Elizabeth Berry, Administrative Counselor for Ag Affairs at the US Embassy. We had an interesting discussion with her about trade between the United States and France. For example, each year the United States imports $2.3 billion in goods from France. On the flip side, France only imports about $700,000 in goods from the US each year. Quite a difference that I'm sure France does not mind. According to Berry France has come up with several reasons to keep our products out of the country, but of course none grounded on scientific basis, but lame excuses and delays. The prospect for change does not seem ideal because France just took over Presidency of the European Union July 1st. Needless to say, that gives the country and little more muscle to flex.
Moving on to more fun topics, Tuesday night we had the chance to do what everyone in Paris should do…. Climb the Eiffel Tower. Well, we didn't climb so much as ride the tram to the top, thank goodness. The pictures do not do it justice but I'll try anyway.

Following our trip to the top, many in the group took a boat ride on the Seine River around many parts of the city. While they did that, the rest of us took a hike to the Arch De Triumph. According to ALOT class member/tour guide Johnny Veibrock, Napolean built the massive piece of beautiful architecture for his wife.

It rains ALOT here too,

The ALOT Class XII adventure continues in France. Yesterday we were on Omaha Beach. This is another photo of La pointe du Hoc where the bomb craters and German bunkers were located. Several ALOT class members have gathered in a bunker out of the rain to listen to our guide.


By the way, thanks for the notes. It's great to know someone is reading and checking out whats going on. Keep me posted and I'll do the same!!

Over the edge of the cliff is Utah beach where soldiers first landed on D-day. Those cliffs were only one of many obstacles they had to overcome.













And many of those who lost their life in the battle were laid to rest here in France. Following the war, the land for the cemetery was donated to the United States.













One thing we have learned for travel sake, bring your umbrella. On each tour the sun was out until we were a hundred yards away from the bus. That's when Mother Nature would cut loose with a little rain and wind. As you can see Garrett Hawkins and Dan Devlin were looking very fresh following our rainy hike.


Later in the day we traveled east to Reams, France located northeast of Paris. We learned a little about the Champaign Industry in France and how they are trying to protect the Champaign name. I'll work on posting the audio so you can take a listen to the report instead of writing everything out.
Following Monday's lesson, today we visited one of the well known Champaign companies for a tour of the Champaign Caves where they age 100's of thousands (if not millions) of bottles of their delicious product. I say delicious because they insisted that we try their Champaign. Being the grateful and obedient guests that we are, we were happy to oblige. Te he he…hiccup hiccup..

This is ALOT Class member Vance Keaton. As Vance was holding the bottle we learned its value is somewhere around $15,000. They were preparing several of these large bottles to be shipped to the purchaser located somewhere in Dubai. That's Jeff Case overseeing things and trying to figure out how to get that thing home before they notice.

A New Adventure

As I type this message, we are driving down the road taking in more of the French countryside. I'll first say the buses are not too easy to type on, due to lack of legroom and the fact we're driving down the highway. We spent this morning on Utah beach, where US troops landed on D-Day at the start of World War II. Following that stopped we moved over to the cemetery where soldiers who lost their lives during the battle are buried. There's about 175 acres that France turned over to the United States Including the Cemetery memorial and the memorial that has been erected at Omaha Beach. I'll try and post additional photos later. My computer does not seem to speak French either so we are having issues. This is a photo of Utah beach. The German soldiers used these bunkers for protection and firing weapons. The lumps in the ground you see are where bombs fell around them.













Now for a couple observations I've made, starting with the flight into Paris. The farmland from the coast into France appears to be in very small plots and that appear rather choppy. Most of the acres were not squared off either. However, as we flew close to Paris, each field dedicated to agriculture production was larger and a little more similar to the U.S. Midwest. Another observation of the countryside, it really is kind of what you might expect. Many of the homes are stone with red roofs. Not all of them are red, but many of them are and it's kind of an interesting sight. They also appear to love flowers and tree. Along many roadsides there are young trees lining the shoulder. Every house is surrounds by beautiful flowering bushes in the yard with window boxes draped in pink red or white flowers too.