The first three weeks of the program will be held as online class meetings to get the academic grounding for the program through reading and class discussion. The reading and writing assignments will be conducted through 5 online modules, which must be completed before arrival in Italy .
We will then spend four weeks in Rome visiting produce markets and developing an understanding of how these markets fit into the larger food system in Italy. We will bring back produce to cook with, focusing on basic cooking techniques and understanding the Italian approach to cuisine. We will also be exploring the community gardening movement in Rome and how it produces new forms of citizenship to address social inequality, urban blight, and economic instability. We will tour the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) to learn about one of the most important centers for global food policy making. And we will meet with local journalists and filmmakers focused on the global food crisis. The next 12 days will be spent in Trevignano-Romano, a small town on the shores of Lake Bracciano an hour north of Rome. We will be learning from local farmers, chefs, artisanal food producers, food journalists, and food change activists.
Our final week in Italy will be spent with our farm hosts at Pulicaro in Torre Alfina, who will introduce the theory and practice of regenerative agriculture, using animals on grass to sequester carbon and build organic matter in the soil. The learning here will focus on animal/human relationships, "multi-functional" farming as a sustainable economic model for small organic farms, the importance of farm networks and solidarity, and farm-to-table cooking in an environmentally responsible way.