Mary Anne Anderson's Account of the 2006 Follow The Grain Class

• March 9 And so it begins--we are on the trek to Taiwan. We are traveling east toward Portland on a coach charter bus. The trees are blooming here—pink blossoms brighten the green landscape. Its raining and has been since we left Seattle.



• March 10 Portland Are checking into security so we can enter the Columbia Grain Shipping Terminal. According to the New Homeland Security Act, each person who enters the facility must show an ID.

  The river is not deep enough to load the largest of the shipping vessels. The capacity at CG is something like 1.2 million metric tons and they turn their inventories 2-3 times a month. Most of the grain is delivered on barges or shuttle trains.

  Next we went to their marketing division in downtown Portland. Ron Williams, one of their grain marketers, said “If I can’t sell it, then I won’t buy it.” This was the first time I really have attached the suppler/buyer relationship to grain commodities.

  Thanks to the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee for lunch.

  After CG marketing, we boarded our circus-train-of-a-group back onto the bus and headed to the Wheat Marketing Center. After three tours, we had reviewed the milling and baking testing process—the bubble blowing alveolograph was by far the coolest. We watched a sheet of noodles being made—think fold and press and fold and press—just like a sword is created. The folds give it strength. Then the sheet is cut, steamed and deep fat fried. The woman demonstrating the process encouraged us to touch and play with the cut noodles. Being from Montana, it was only a matter of minutes before one of the guys had fashioned a lariat.

  Back in the conference room, we found products made from wheat and were asked to taste-test them. Our final speaker of the day was the representative from US Wheat Associates. His comments included, “Aim for the high end of quality” and the dairy industry in Oregon spends more on marketing than does the entire US wheat industry. He stressed that we needed to start producing hard white wheat to meet demands from Asian markets.




• March 11 Sitting in the airport waiting to board the plane. The boys have decided to antagonize the bar tender in the Mountain Room Bar across from the departure gate.



• March 12 Some where in the night we crossed the date line, so that makes today Sunday and not Saturday. Currently, we are flying between Japan and Taiwan. We are flying on an airbus and have traveled nearly 6,170 miles. The sun is just about to rise above the clouds.

  The Taiwanese know the meaning of hospitality, and customs was much less scary here than it was in Russia (Editor's note: Anderson was in Russia for six months in 2004 as an exchange student).

  On the bus, en route to visit the temple. The sky is grey and overcast. Contrary to popular belief, asphalt isn’t everywhere. They have medians full of trees and flowering shrubs—all in bloom now. I always envisioned Taiwan to be flat, but high, steep hills with deep cuts seem to dominate the landscape.

  First stop the CKS (Chiang Kai-shek ) memorial. It was colossal. I can’t help but wonder if all communist structures are large. Our group is kind of like and elephant parade. ? The park is beautiful. Everything is perfectly manicured and decorated to fit with my notions of Oriental design. There is a peace you can feel inside the memorial. The city just disappears and melts into another time.

  The smell here hits you like a rock. The smog has almost the same smell as the Moscow smog did.

  Went to an outdoor market before lunch. Food vendors were everywhere, crowding in a small side street selling almost anything you can think of: fruit, vegetables, nuts, candy, meat and fish (raw and cooked). The market was filled with people, scooters, and one random car trying to navigate the chaos.

  Here the scooters outnumber the cars. Everywhere you go scooters line the streets—neatly parked side-by-side. Lunch—think Mongolian Grill, boil-your-own-style. I started off with noodles, mussels, dumplings, and one or two other things. Bailey (Tye Bailey) and Rick (McCosh) each ate a tiny squid. Rick also ate a de-boned chicken’s foot. Only comment was that it was better than squid. Later—8:00ish Struggling to stay awake. We spent the last three hours at the Jade and Flower markets. The first was a touristy place, full of jewelry and the second was home to more orchids and bonsai trees than I have ever seen in my life.




• March 13 Woke up at 4:30. I hate jet lag. Breakfast—there is nothing as good as fresh pineapple in the morning. The hotel offers continental breakfasts (three: American, Chinese, and Japanese (I think)). Very tasty! First stop: Chinese Flour Miller’s Association Here we were joined by millers and a representative from the Foreign Agricultural Service and US Wheat Associates. The Taiwanese are very gracious people bursting with hospitality. From what I got out of the meeting, they would like to see more white wheat grown as well as more consistent protein levels. Interestingly enough, they are not willing to pay a premium for the white wheat. Technology doesn’t change. We have seen the same equipment in nearly every milling and baking testing lab we have visited (at MSU, in Portland, in Taiwan). It was really cool to see that Montana Wheat and Barley donated to make the Chinese Grain Product Research and Development Institute possible. The acting director is a 92 year old woman.



• March 14 Traveled to Taichung. Had a press conference at the Orange Market. They loved it when some of us put on cowboy hats! Much cheering from the reporters. The Taiwanese have a custom of throwing buns to distribute them. Some of our kids got a hold of them and the crowd was attacked by flying walnut rolls. Went to the port facilities. I got to see the ocean!!!!!!!!! They were unloading a vessel from Australia. The wharf was open and quiet—a nice change from the noise of the cities.



• March 15 Visited the Isabelle Bakery and a wheat field. The bakery is a top-end facility providing many wafer-like cookies. In the lobby, they have a dragon statue for good luck and a bowl full of water for him to drink from. The wheat field was the size of a large (read: farmer’s market producer) garden. It was still in the dough stage and they were running the smallest combine I have ever seen. A little larger than a bobcat, it had tracks and no more than an eight foot header. They plant wheat early in the winter, harvest it, and then put in rice. Traveling back to Taipei: many of the rice paddies are in the middle of the cities. All the freeways are raised above the normal streets.



• March 16 The 7-11’s here have multiplied like rabbits. They are on almost every block on every street, everywhere in Taipei. Visited with the Council of Agriculture about the agriculture in Taiwan. Very diversified. Visited Yang-ming-shan National Park. En-route we see fences covered with flowers and at the top, there was razor wire—it seems like a contradiction in terms. The park sits high in the hills above the cities. Dinner: needed to eat American food. The group went to Hooters. We had dinner and a show.



• March 17 The longest St. Patrick’s Day ever! Spent the morning site-seeing at Taipei 101. The sky was clear as a muffled bell (the pollution accounts for the muffling). Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world. We went to the top observation deck and stood outside to look at the city. It was awesome—the taxies looked like a swarm of yellow bees. Returned to the hotel to pack and leave for the airport. Departed Taipei at 4:37 p.m. Arrived in Seattle before noon, still on March 17. Landed in Bozeman at 8:40 p.m. Nice to be home.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 05/02/2006