Belgium

Belgium,

What a surprise, home of chocolate, European parliament and a rich history, first up we met at the Aust embassy and got the lay of the land from Russell Phillips, there we met up with some of the UK scholars which was a great chance to catch up again since earlier in the year.
Day two in Belgium saw us visit the parliament and have what was the highlight for me a meeting with the USA embassy advisor for agriculture who gave us the USA perspective on the EU and all the issues surrounding trade politics etc, and he did not pull any punches very honest and had the group wanting more, excellent.
Then off to the European commission for agriculture to get the European political version interesting difference the politics involved in keeping 27 countries happy is not a position anyone would want to be in, that's for sure.
All out for dinner, ribs Belgium style was on the menu and all you can eat at that, not sure any more australians will be offered all you can eat there again, man they were tasty.
Then it was off to a BAYER show case farm, still operated as a commercial farm they showcased different methods of handling common issues in farming mostly with organic principles or at least an environmental approach, very interesting and a credit to there research. Main things were IPM, bee hotels and bee attraction areas, erosion control, habitat restoration, natural disease controls, an excellent show piece.
Then on to Ypres, and the Menen Gate we managed to get there in time for the ceremony which was great to be apart of Australians are held in high regard in some of these small towns which were hit hard in the wars in particular WW1. Ypres was a beautiful town steeped in history and a incredible resilience in the people to rebuild after the town was destroyed in WW1.