Wisconsin Ag Connection - Grants to Help Students Learn About International Agriculture

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Grants to Help Students Learn About International Agriculture
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 11/15/2013

Students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison are preparing for life at the cutting edge of agriculture, from international markets to alternative production methods. With funding from the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates--which is a campus-wide effort to boost the value, quality and affordability of undergraduate education--College of Agricultural and Life Sciences has been helping professors integrate international experiences into their courses. This year students will experience life and agriculture in places as far-flung as Norway, Guatemala and the Philippines.

Some students will travel to the locations they are studying, but other courses are bringing stories home to Wisconsin classrooms.

Animal science professor John Parrish wants students to be ready to learn from real-world problems and solutions. He used his CALS course internationalization grant to build a case study on Filipino hogs. His Filipino case study asks students to grapple with the problem of overheated hogs. When too hot, hogs produce fewer offspring--a familiar animal husbandry challenge in the tropical Philippines.

Students examine the Filipino innovations and learn how they might be applied to hog production here in Wisconsin. Not only do the Filipino producers keep the hogs cool, but they also manage to maintain a hog facility right next to a housing development. There is no odor because all of the hog waste is processed in an anaerobic digester that powers the facility.

Other professors have used the grant to directly link American students to their counterparts abroad. UW-Madison botany professor Don Waller and plant pathology professor Caitilyn Allen connected a group of UW students with a group of Guatemalan students, all studying international agriculture. The classrooms were linked through internet conferencing, and during winter break the UW students traveled to Guatemala.

Guatemala exports to highly specialized markets - from gourmet vegetables for Trader Joe's in the U.S. to ferns for European flower arrangements. The country also hosts U.S. plant breeders whose innovations are used back home.

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