Meeting Consumer Needs for Safe High Quality Food ..
Meeting Consumer Needs for Safe High Quality Food Products
Start date: Sep 16, 2010,
Today, agriculture is a global enterprise. If agriculture graduates are going to be competitive in today's job market, they will need to be equipped to address global issues of the food and fiber system. European and U.S. consumers alike are increasingly concerned about the source, quality and safety of their food products. This project will study this issue from a global perspective. Having students study internationally under a common core of international agriculture courses will expand the students' view and content knowledge as well as allow the U.S. undergraduates enrolled in agriculture the option of having an international credential as part of their academic portfolio. This is an asset for career enhancement. This project brings together a strong coalition of partners that have existing partnership agreements and each bring a specialization and unique focus to the disciplinary study. In the U.S. a major challenge in higher education is the under-representation of African Americans and other minorities, i.e., Hispanics in study abroad programs. Also, there is a disparity of African Americans and Hispanics in international agriculture. This project proposes to target at least 50% of the students involved in the international agriculture curriculum development program and the semester exchanges from under-represented minority groups, i.e., African American and Hispanics. There is an added value in training agriculture students from a global perspective. This EU-US Consortium consisting of LaSalle Beauvais, Universitat fur BOKU, Florida A&M University (FAMU) and University of Georgia (UGA) will offer a concentration in international agriculture which explores consumer needs for safe, high quality food products. The project entitled, "Meeting Consumer Needs for Safe High Quality Food Products" will engage 24 EU and 24 US students in semester exchange programs under a common core of international agriculture courses. Sixteen (8 EU and 8 US) faculty will be involved in the mobility for 1-2 week teaching and research activities under this focus. Students will study a broad range of approaches to produce, add value, market and trade in safe high quality food products. Students will participate in language and culture programs with pre and post-exchange assessments. The consortium will meet four times over the life of the project at annual meetings. Forty eight monthly meetings will be held via Skype and video conference. Emails will provide the channel for daily communications and project updates.
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