Objectives
This course has many objectives. These include acquiring knowledge and insights about:
- the characteristics, production practices, economic importance and evolutionary trends in several major kinds of crops and livestock in the world's food system;
- how production elements are integrated into farm units and regional and national economies;
- biological, technical, social and political dimensions of complex problems associated with the exploitation of natural and human resources through agriculture, and to sample the individual and collective responses to these problems;
- acquiring experience in interdisciplinary efforts and to be exposed to career possibilities; and
- acquiring a more informed appreciation of the similarities in human conditions and aspirations throughout the rural world by experiencing an unfamiliar setting and culture.
Strategy
The April 1999 exhibition of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings at the Phillips Museum in Washington DC shared with the public advice given to Ms. O'Keefe by her mentor, Arthur W. Dow.
Professor Dow's counsel, structure art to reveal understanding of life forms serves, too, as a beacon to those who would dare to better comprehend nature, landscapes, people and their livelihood systems:
