4-hour stay in Canada

Took a quick business trip to Hensall, Ontario, Canada. It was supposed to be a business meeting to discuss the opportunity to visit Japanese customers that import Otebo beans for paste in autumn. That would be fantastic! But it was a civic holiday in that country (the first Monday of August is reserved for going to the beach!), and the main consultant who has contacts with the customers was absent! We though had a nice overview of the exporter (it is truly a big business), and had a meaningful discussion on the ongoing variety trials and also on my bean paste research. Their concern was that the bean paste market is very small, and the return may not be as much. It is totally understandable. The paste market of dry beans is only 5,000 t, which is a fraction of a percent of the total a few million tons the company handles. Considering that the Shochu company I worked for imported 200,000 tons of barley annually, the market is indeed very small. Nonetheless, they seemed interested in my reseaerch and improving the North American Otebo beans for paste quality, which are currently just selected based on the agronomic yield. We will see where this project brings us.

Crossing a border is always makes me nervous especially after the current president was elected. The government implement strict and sometimes unclear immigration policies, and that has made many families separated near the US-Mexico border areas. Even though I have necessary documents to cross the border and come back, it is nerve-wracking to have a conversation with an immigration officer. On the way there, the officer asked us a bunch of questions regarding who we are, what we do and where we went in Ontario. Our technician explained that we had a meeting there, visited a few research plots and we work on beans. His explanation was very clear and in detail, but when he said "We are agronomists.", the officer said "What is an agronomist?"! We were baffled. He just said that! We visited the plots and saw how plants were growing! After we re-entered the US, we were saying that "Border control is one of the few jobs where you wake up every morning thinking how you could harass people, thinking about what kind of puzzling questions to ask". It was kind of humorous because we were all admitted.. They told me it had been worse and that it was relatively smooth. Oh dear.

It was very hot and humid there despite being Canada! After visiting 4 experimental fields and checking each plot one by one, I was so ready to go home!

カナダ一日出張に行ってきました。車で4時間の旅でした。国境を超えるのはいつもどきどき…。豆をあんこ用に輸出している会社に行って来て会議して、私の研究のお話も少しして、蒸し暑い中圃場を4つも回って、長い一日だった。

米加の国境で、カナダで何をしていたのか、誰と会ったのかとかを入国審査官から聞かれ、技官の方が、圃場に行って植物の様子を見たりとか輸出業者と会議をした、アグロノミスト（農業経営学者）なので、と丁寧に答えた。その挙句に審査官、「でアグロノミストって何？」　今説明したやん…。えーと、植物を扱ってます…。米国に入国できてからの帰路、「僕らはアグロノミストじゃないんだ…」「入国審査官ってのは、毎朝、今日は国境を超える人たちにどんなこと聞いてやろうか、って考える職業だね」　もっと意地悪な質問をされたこともあるらしい。大変だ…。

北米産や外国産の豆は、とにかく価格で非常に有利。国産は価格で勝負することは現状ほぼ不可能。でも品質が良いから選ばれる。白あん特性の研究をするのはいいけれど、北米産の豆が製餡特性まで良くなったら、日本の豆はますます太刀打ちできなくなるのではという危惧もある…。日本のような狭い農地で、北米のような超大規模経営の農業体系と競争するのは無理がある気もする。かといって、効率を上げることを諦めない方が良いと思う。まあ、国産は高級品、輸入物は一般品、と、商品用途によって住み分けができている気もするけれど。難しい問題だ…。

すくすく。

一面の豆畑。