Second European Sustainable Food Planning Conference

As a follow-up of the first European Sustainable Food Planning Conference, which took place on 9 and 10 October 2009 in Almere (The Netherlands), the Urban Performance Group of the University of Brighton (UK) will host the second European Sustainable Food Planning Conference on 29 and 30 October 2010. Like the first one, this second [...]

AspergeGilde Peel en Maas

Het AspergeGilde Peel en Maas is een samenwerking van 25 aspergetelers uit de gemeente Peel en Maas. De telersgroep werkt samen met een aantal lokale restaurants, kookstudio’s en recreatieondernemers, ook wel de vrienden van het AspergeGilde genoemd. Het AspergeGilde heeft de volgende doelstellingen: promotie van de Peel en Maasregio als aspergeregio bevordering van de aspergeconsumptie door nadere kennismaking met [...]

Touching food and social relations through art

“Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner” Byron wrote. Food, both solid and liquid, is making the difference between life and death. For all the interest in and appreciation of ‘landscape’ and ‘nature’ we are most intimately connected to nature through the integration of nature in ourselves; our daily intake of food. However, there can [...]

Growth of local food economy in USA – Ken Meter

Sustainability impact is one of the five themes of the course ‘Origin Food: a Market for Identity’ (see my earlier post for more info). Surfing on internet, looking for some empirical material on the importance of local food for local economies, we came across the work of Ken Meter, president of the Crossroads Resource Center:  Crossroads Resource Center, a non-profit organization, works [...]

Internship in the ‘Friesische Schafskäserei’ (Friesian sheep dairy), part 2

By Corinna Feldmann - MSc Student March, 13th Life on the sheep farm is very busy right now. More and more lambs are getting born, which have to be fed and of course more sheep have to be milked. All the milk is now used for cheese production, as we are expecting many tourists during the [...]

University Food Culture

Last week I ordered Italian at the new and growing campus lunch food market. What started with some Chinese dishes from a scooter has evolved into a small food market with multiple Chinese and also an Italian warm meal provider and long queue’s at the clock of twelve. The new market is popular, especially among Chinese [...]

Wanted: student for an intensive experience in Slovakia

Are you a student with a Major, Minor and/or internship in Rural Sociology/Rural Planning/Rural Development? Then we offer the possibility for a 2 week intensive experience in Slovakia. With an international group of students from various European countries (a.o. Portugal, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Lithuania, Slovenia) you will work out a case study about the [...]

Studenten gezocht: onderzoek Usseler es

De  Vereniging tot Behoud Usselo en Usseler es (VBU) zoekt studenten die meewerken aan een onderzoek naar identiteitsdragers van de Usseler es, zoals die tot uiting komen in verhalen, beleving en emotionele waarden van bewoners, gebruikers, lokale en regionale burgerij en naar de sociaal-economische betekenis hiervan voor het gebied. Het onderzoek maakt deel uit van een project dat [...]

Thesis possibility: Sheep & Wine in South Africa

The Rural Sociology Group offers a possibility to do your master thesis about organic wine production in South Africa. As organic wine production cannot make use of pesticides, wine growers search for other ways to control the weeds in the vineyard, for example by mowing or burning. More recently, the idea has come up to [...]

Romashki or a Life Less Ordinary, part 2

By Thomas Mcintyre Once upon a time…Do you, my dear reader, believe it is possible to live in a fairytale? This may seem like a strange question on a rural sociology blog, and indeed it is. It is not a question I thought seriously about before, though I confess I have been predisposed to curling [...]