This year’s International Collegiate Ag Leadership (I-CAL) program is winding up a two-week international mission to Panama and Colombia with every indication that the 12 student participants have a new depth of understanding of the international ag trade and foreign cultures.

“The Grains Foundation sponsors this program to train tomorrow’s ag leaders early in their careers so they have the maximum opportunity to use the knowledge they have gained,� said Rick Fruth, Foundation chairman.

“They will come home with an appreciation for the importance of international agriculture and the role that international trade in agricultural products plays in a modern global economy.�

I-CAL class members are posting daily reports on the Council’s blog, www.thegrainboard.com. In Panama, they highlighted visits to a fish market, the world’s second-largest grain container port, the canal, shrimp production center, rice milling plant, and even an iguana producer.

They also gained practical experience building relationships while touring a secondary school that provides an agricultural curriculum. There, each I-CAL member presented a bag of biotech rice to a local farmer in a ceremony that drew interviews and media coverage by Panamanian radio and television.

In addition to filing daily reports, class members integrate their observations from each visit into a broader understanding through a debriefing process at the end of each country visit. As Caleb Wurth from Kansas State University and Kelli Fulkerson from South Dakota State University concluded after the Panama experience, “Freight transportation is all about volume economics…Amazing day here in Panama.�

Chairman Fruth reminds Council members to support this and other Foundation programs at the Council’s 51st Annual Board of Delegates meeting this July. “I hope you plan to support this valuable program by attending the Foundation’s wine tasting fundraiser this July in San Francisco,� he said. Click here for details.