I was just reading a comment by Ally about my knowledge of farming on the World stage. Having been away for a few years from the coal face, I consider it a compliment to be thought of as 'in farming' again! It is as tough a profession as there is, it is much maligned and certainly not as appreciated as it should be. I remember from my days teaching at Wye that I would often comment about the breadth of knowledge a farmer needed to run a farm business as the farmer was often the sole manager in the business. Not for the farmer the luxury of specialisation.
Anyway just for the record, I thought I would chart my way from farmer to farmer again. As my bio says my family were farming in Suffolk and the Scottish borders. I was heavily involved with the family farm in Suffolk before Wye. I graduated from student to academic staff and had the privalige of being in John Nix's last student undergraduate group. I was then lucky enough to spend a few years on the academic staff alongside as good a team of agricultural business/economics/policy and food marketing/management people as you could find anywhere Worldwide at the time. A strength that ten years later has been seriously weakened by the negligence of a few.
At Wye and afterwards I was lucky enough to travel as a consultant working for some of the major international organisations. My oversees work encompassed south-east and central Asia, the Caucuses, the Middle East and Eastern Europe (my experience was and still remains eclipsed by many of my former colleagues at Wye). It was not just agri-business work but included strategic advise at the national level and food security work. At times I seem to have strayed into the credit and finance sectors but I still think my most 'notable' meeting was with an agricultural minister who sat on the last Politbureau! A great sense of humour if you did not let yourself be inimidated. I have fond memories of a mission to refocus the Thai rubber production sector as the Thais are wonderful people. Having said that seeking a way forward in Jordan with its terribly limited agricultural resources was probably the most enjoyable, the people are so hosptitable and cultures and the food supereb. A little less local trouble and I expect I may have been there still.
Romania and Transylvania started nearly 11 years ago. I have worked here on and off for a decade and lived here for the last six years. In so many places it is a fantastically beautiful country and agriculturally extremely rich. As equally fantastic is the muddle its agri-food sector has been reduced to by 20 years of governmental neglect! I thought I had worked in some difficult places before but absolutely nothing can prepare one for the difficulties associated with managing a business in Romania. I was warned about this by some old hands a few years ago and it is very true, Romania is like no other. Thankfully there are a very few who have survived and maybe in another five years we will be able to at least show a light at the end of the tunnel for others to follow. At times, however, I think about Flash Jaques in France and think if only......!