Washington DC

Washington DC,

First we got some time to look around the Capitol and take in the sites, then followed a briefing from Hope our guide for the DC visit, following this James Walker organized invites for all of us to the Rammy's, the Rammys are an awards presentation night for the food and restaurant trade in washington dc, one the sponsors is the MLA which australia had a great representation and a fantastic networking opportunity for all of us, James did well, a great time was had by all.

The next couple of days were packed full of meetings, where we learnt about the how and what goes into the farm bill, how the USA looks at Australia and our trading relationships. Interestingly the farm bill is more about social security than farmers, food stamps make up 85% of the trillion dollars.

At one meeting even the government adviser was surprised as how the USA is able to with stand it's debt never mind any plans of paying it back.
Once again the buy local produce was very predominant also animal welfare and GM foods.

California

On our way now to Washington, last night we had a great night with the Paul and Lynn Huntsinger, great way to finish off California. San Joaquin valley was quite a eye opening and definitely worth some extra investigation at a later date. It is essentially large scale intensive production 2-3 crops/ year high value crops all irrigated they only get 6 inches of natural rainfall a year. Having said that there are some very wealthy people and a lot of poverty also which is a struggle for us to understand when the area is such a prosperous agricultural area.
Fresno has some real issues with there city and how to resurrect it especially in the downtown area, however I think we saw the model to do this in sonoma county just north of San Francisco but they have not be speaking with each other which is quite surprising, I guess communication problems happen everywhere.

California

In California now, actually good to have some western food and know every one can understand you, had some clam chowder at fishermans wharf after we arrived in San Francisco, that night we had dinner at Glenda's(Glenda is state director of USDA rural development and our guide for the week.) followed by a briefing for the week.
Next morning we were off to the Marin markets which is the 3rd biggest farmers market in California, ate some fantastic food and had great insight into how fresh produce is viewed in california, a big emphasis is placed on local, organic, fresh. There slogan is "I know my farmer" it has been striking how high the public regard there farmers very different to home. The market was a real highlight and we all wished we could have spent more time there talking with the producers.

Next thing was a stop at Luc Chamberland, whose business Saltwater was developed using crowd funding and interesting concept.
That night was visit to crane melons where we went through Rick's private museum of old farm implements and machinery very interesting and Rick was quite a character he came out with the quote of the trip so far when asked about control of vermin on his property his response was "our farm policy is kill it all and let god work it out".
That night we were hosted at the melon barn for dinner by some local farmers fantastic night good food and some great wine.

Since then we have had some fantastic insights into how Ag operates in the US from senior USDA officials and met with conservation workers who actually really value farmers and actively engage farmers for more sustainable methods and most of all are concerned about the welfare of the farmers first, with funding available to improve farm systems for environment, Australia could definitely take a leaf out of there book.

Off to Fresno tonight for a dinner with local farmers 3hr drive so hence the length of this blog.

Beijing

Back to Beijing got in late due to delayed flight, and up very early to head south to Emma(our guide) home town where her grand mother still lives with her extended family, saw some header contractors moving with all the drivers asleep still in the cabins of the tractors. We had a great insight into traditional Chinese way of life.
Back to Beijing for a little shopping and r&r quite night.
Next morning off to the great wall, wow what an incredible structure certainly has to be seen to be believed, we all feel very privileged to be there fantastic weather, I was very impressed with how much the air quality had improved in Beijing since my last visit.
That night we went to a acrobatics show crikey some talent was on display, highlight was 8 motor bikes inside a ball of death, I'm glad Hugh was not there or I am sure he would be asking dad to build one for him.

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia what a surprise, this place was extremely modern and very comfortable, here farming was on a larger scale as well, with a look at large scale potato production, wheat, naked oats, dairy and cashmere.
The high light for me was the dairy industry which china has only 3 main dairy companies of a scale I had never imagined. We looked at the smallest of 15 farms under this one dairy which had 11,000 cows, other dairies they owned were up to 30,000 cows. In total they were currently under production with 156,000 cows with plans to take that to 260,000 cows this accounted for about 70% of the milk that went through the processing facility which is in the photo's below.
Another highlight was the meeting with a cashmere producer and processor he had just been given the go ahead to set up a 1000km2 irrigated Lucerne farm in western Mongolia to farm goats and camels for cashmere production.