Myself and 14 other girls will be traveling with Jim Bingen to France for about 3 weeks. Here is the description via MSU.
This program is designed for undergraduate and graduate students with a wide range of interests in the environment, biodiversity protection, local food and farming, and rural development.
From the rugged foothills high above the Mediterranean coast through the vineyards of the Languedoc you will explore how:
- public policies – local, regional, national and European – promote and protect livelihoods on small family farms as well as the places or terrior
- farmers deal with the challenge of protecting biodiversity while promoting local farming and herding
- contemporary urban sprawl threatens centuries of identities connected to specific places
- local food products are central to promoting rural development based on connections between local food and farming
With sheep, goat, and chestnut farmers in the Cevennes National Park to the vineyards of Languedoc and the open-air food markets of Montpellier, students will taste the food of France on remote small farms and discover the ways in which family farms and the natural resource heritage in southern France are being preserved and protected.
More details about this program can be found at http://studyabroad.msu.edu/programs/foodinfrance.html
