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Venezuela Mosaic 2008-2009 |
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VENEZUELA and the U.S.: The College Farm, Environmental Studies and Prof. Susan Rose (Sociology) will be offering a fall/winter ethnographic field course addressing sustainable agricultural systems and cooperative movements. Students will take a ½ credit course in the fall with Halpin and Rose, studying the concept of sustainability from both agricultural and economic / political / development perspectives. We will examine sustainable agricultural practices in both the U.S. and Venezuela, the Bolivarian process, and the cooperative and mission movements in contemporary Venezulea. As part of the ENVS311 / SOC313 course, we will then travel to Venezuela for two + weeks in January '09 to work in the fields at La Alianza, a model organic food production cooperative, learning about sustainable agricultural practices, including vermiculture. Students will also have the opportunity to conduct in-depth interviews about the cooperative's practices and philosophy. Meetings with local people and activists, and fieldtrips to other cooperatives will also take place in the state of Lara. The last few days will be spent in the coastal towns of Choroni and Chuau, visiting community organized eco-tourism projects and cocao plantations. This January segment will continue in the spring semester as students process, analyze, archive, and present their final research projects. The second ½ credit course will finish by spring break. Students will receive either a S or U after the fall ½ credit and the final grade for the whole course will be recorded after the full course is completed in spring 2009. Applications may be picked up at the Office of Global Education or downloaded from: http://www.dickinson.edu/global/programs/globally-integrated/documents/VenezuelaConsolidatedApplication.pdf
Background The community of La Alianza in the state of Lara inVenezuela is a model organic food production cooperative. The agricultural enterprises use no petro-chemicals due to previous negative experiences with contamination. La Alianza promotes sustainable farming practices and offers educational seminars to rural people. The community also presents an example of alternative land ownership for economically disadvantaged people. Sustainable agriculture is also gaining interest in the U.S., as consumers demand to learn more about how food is raised. Dickinson 's College Farm offers students the opportunity to gain hands-on education in sustainable food production and serves as a resource for farmers and consumers to learn about sustainable food systems. This project will introduce students to the concepts of sustainable agriculture and agroecology at the College Farm. They will then be primed to examine the rural Venezuelan approach to the same concepts at La Alianza. By comparing two approaches to sustainability practiced in the U.S. and Venezuela , students will be pressed to delve deeper into the questions of land stewardship, viable economies and sustainable communities. La Alianza, which sits above a small, impoverished rural community in the mountains of Lara - boasts a very successful, cooperative organic farm. In January (‘07), 25 Dickinson students and faculty spent time at La Alianza, interviewing members of the cooperative organic farm that is now recognized around the country and in a number of Latin American countries. La Alianza formed in 1976, and over the past 30 years has been able to sustain an agricultural cooperative. La Alianza operates three different parcels of land worked by 42 co-op members. Producing everything from vegetables to rabbits, from coffee to liquid fertilizers, La Alianza was begun thirty years ago by landless peasants and has been a self-supporting and expanding business ever since. Most of its products are now organically grown, although a few crops, like coffee, still require mild chemical pesticides. Check out these links for more background on Dickinson's Mosaic program in Venezuela. The Venezuela Mosaic & |
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