Julie Harker (Brownfield Ag News, Jefferson City, MO) had the opportunity in early September to cover the BASF global news conference in Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany. She was one of five U.S. ag journalists there and the only U.S. radio reporter. “Sitting in a room with more than 100 ag journalists from 25 countries is a great experience. In 2014, I attended Bayer’s global news conference in Dusseldorf Germany, where I interacted with international ag reporters for the first time in my career. With the help of translators, we are able to hear questions asked and agriculture concerns raised from different countries. Many are the same and some are different than what’s facing farmers in the U.S. The news conferences themselves are conducted in English. This event was right before the Bayer/Monsanto merger announcement – so it was a great opportunity to ask BASF officials how the merger/consolidation environment would affect them,” Julie said. “We toured the main headquarters of BASF and learned about the long history of this company that began with the manufacture of dyes. 
Part of the huge operation, which has more than 30,000 workers (who ride red bicycles on-site) was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt. We 
got to see how they apply seed treatments in the BASF lab and saw things growing on plant samples in the biologics lab.” Julie concluded, “I enjoy learning about the different ag companies, which gives me a broader base of information to share with our listeners.”
