Penn State to Host Fulbright Global Food Security Seminar

February 29-March 4, 2012
Penn State, University Park Campus
State College, Pennsylvania

The Fulbright Global Food Security Seminar will bring together international graduate students in a wide variety of disciplines from plant sciences to public health. Penn State’s University Park campus was selected by the U.S. Department of State to host more than 70 Fulbright scholars from 40 developing countries for this four-day seminar from February 29 to March 4. The seminar is a joint project of the College of Agricultural Sciences and the University Office of Global Programs (UOGP). Global Knowledge Initiatives (GKI), a nonprofit organization that seeks to bridge the gap between developed and developing countries, will join the collaboration to supervise the closing workshop and presentation contest.

The seminar builds on the approach to food security in the College of Agricultural Sciences’ curriculum, which is organized around three key components: availability, accessibility, and usability; and focuses on five key themes: technology, economics, politics, natural resources, and sociocultural. UOGP recently charged a food security task force that seeks to bring together a multidisciplined group of scholars to discuss and promote scholarship regarding the issue.

In addition to the academic panels and discussions, field trips to local farms and research facilities provide further networking opportunities for the participants.

The event, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), is organized by the Institute of International Education. ECA oversees the Fulbright program, which is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

For more information, please visit: http://live.psu.edu/story/57695#email.