Midwest Corn Farmers Impress Japanese Group
Biotech crops and meeting the demand for food and fuel are the main reasons why a group of Japanese reporters and professors was traveling around the Midwest this week, but what really seemed to impress them was family farmers themselves and how they run their operations, according to the Missouri Corn Growers Association.
In Missouri, the media representatives from Japan’s food and livestock industry as well as university professors and a consumer group leader first visited the family farm of Wayne and Scott Boschert in St. Charles.
“I felt a warm reception upon my arrival,” said Mr. Hirofumi Iwata, executive director of Animal Media Co. “I had an image of a farm run by a company and was surprised to find out it is run by a family, still interested in constantly progressing and not just maintaining the status quo in production, but in increasing their yield.”
The Japanese team was very interested in learning more about the history of the Boschert family farm, which stretches back six generations.
“The fact that Wayne Boschert is a fifth generation farmer and his son, Scott, is a sixth generation farmer is non-existent in Japan,” said Dr. Hideaki Karaki, professor emeritus for the University of Tokyo. “The fact that he doesn’t want to retire and is happy to be farming, along with the fact that the family didn’t have to sell off the farm, especially during the Great Depression, is incredible. To hear someone in Japan say, ‘I’m so happy I don’t want to retire’ is not conceivable.”
The group also visited the farm of John Boerding, where they got to ride in a combine and experience harvesting firsthand. After leaving St. Charles, the Japanese team went on to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa as well as an ethanol plant and several other seed producers and elevators along the way. Upon returning to Japan, team members are expected to report on the use of biotechnology and its attributes as well as the agricultural experiences they encountered while visiting the U.S. The visit was coordinated by the U.S. Grains Council.
