The summer school course was based in Rheinau, a beautiful small and mysterious village in northern Switzerland, in a loop of the Rheine River and on the boarder of Germany. The course entitled Organic Production Systems was hosted by the World Food System Centre and ETH Zurich. The small village of Rheinau, and the organic farm that makes up most of surrounding area and fields in-between the village was the perfect setting for the course. Organic farm learning and field work was done in the long summer evenings after lectures that were held during the day both in Rheinau and at relevant food system stakeholders in the region. Lecture presentations were given by specialists in their fields, discussing all elements of the value chain, ranging from sustainable agricultural production systems, seed breeding, to marketing, distribution, retail and global food system outcomes and policy issues. It was very beneficial gaining an understanding of the food system from a European or developed world perspective, which sheds light on power inequalities and the ways and means in which developing counties, particularly in Southern Africa, respond.
Tag: Switzerland
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Friedrich in Zurich
This blog entry may have a slightly different feel to it than the others, as I travelled to study at Zurich University with my friend Wicus Coetzee. Having a friend traveling with made the preparations far easier as only one person had to book flight tickets, only one person needed to inquire about housing and only one person has to deal with the bank to secure foreign currency. (more…)
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Wicus in Zurich
Planning and the first month:
Friedrich Kreuser and I are currently on exchange in Switzerland at the University of Zürich (UZH). Before departure, we obviously had to go through all the normal steps: get a visa, check whether we require vaccinations, book a flight, inform my bank that I will be in a different country and find out what the costs of transactions will be and so on. I don’t know anything about visas, but I have found that on the two trips which I have made to Europe that Pick n Pay travel offered the lowest prices on flights. You can find them at http://www.pnptravel.co.za/. I also use only my credit cards when travelling overseas and withdraw cash upon arrival at the nearest ATM. There is always an ATM at the airport, so exchanging money before hand is not really necessary, although it is safe.