Blade business writer honored for dairy story

4/24/2001

Blade business writer Jane Schmucker has won a third-place award from the North American Agricultural Journalists for her story last year on European dairy farmers moving to northwest Ohio and the Midwest.

Miss Schmucker's story on March 19, 2000, was cited by the judges as a “well-reported, balanced account” of how Dutch and Danish farmers - fed up with government limits on milk sales and costly new regulations there - have decided to move here and build multimillion-dollar farms with thousands of milking cows.

The story was “[an] excellent analysis of why European dairy farmers are moving to the Midwest and what the consequences - good and bad - may be for their new neighbors.”

Miss Schmucker, 32, covers agricultural issues for The Blade. She has worked at the newspaper since March, 1995.

The first-place winner in the news category was Mikkel Pates of Agweek from the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald and the second-place winner was Steven Lee of the Dallas Morning News. Three writers received honorable mention recognition. The awards were among those presented last night at an annual dinner in Washington.