Trip is eye-opening for students
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 07/29/2010 9:45 AM
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Twelve of the best agriculture students in the United States, including five from Minnesota and Iowa, participated in the 2010 International Collegiate Agricultural Leadership Program.
The students traveled to Malaysia and Taiwan in May to study international grain marketing, trade and global agriculture.
All said the trip was well worth their time and an eye-opening experience. They learned how religious beliefs influence what people include in their diets and therefore influence what a country imports and raises.
For example, the group talked about dried distillers grains, promoting its nutritional value and its value. In Malaysia, however, buyers weren't interested for one reason: Odor. DDGs have an alcohol odor, and the country's Muslim population won't feed DDGs to their poultry because of it.
"There's a lot of different things to think of when working with different cultures … different religions," said Adam Miller, who graduated from Ridgewater College this spring and is now working as an agronomist and farming.
Miller said he never thought of Malaysia or Taiwan as a place to go on vacation or as a tourism spot, but would he would go back because of all the interesting things he saw on the trip.
There is the potential to increase grain sales in the two countries, Miller said, but producers there need to be educated about how to use U.S. feed products in rations.
The U.S. Grains Council and other organizations are doing a good job of sharing messages about U.S. farm products, Miller said, and farmers need to do their part by shipping quality products.
The I-CAL Program is a partnership of the U.S. Grains Council and The GRAINS Foundation.