After arriving Sunday morning, we took a short bus ride out of Brussels. The first things I noticed were the cars. European cars are much smaller than their American counterparts. While there were a few 18-wheel trucks, the majority of vehicles were small personal 2-door cars or professional vans.
We drove on a highway which would be equivalent to the interstates in Arkansas, and I was surprised to find that the posted signs were familiar. The speed limits ranged up to 90 km/hr, equivalent to the areas marked 55 at home. We passed a slew of signs naming Belgian cities on the route, interspersed in the farmland.
We checked into the hostel in Ghent a short while later, greeted by a picnic brunch featuring local cheese, salmon, and salami. People here do not regularly drink milk, which is a big shift for me. I drink milk with two or three meals each day in Arkansas, but milk here (comes in a box) is sweet and is primarily for addition to coffee. In the handful of meals I’ve eaten in Belgium, a recurring point of discussion is the cost of water. As we learned prior to the summer, water regulations are not standardized across Europe so tap water is hit-or-miss in regard to potability. Europeans drink other beverages or bottled/sparkling water, both of which are often more expensive than soda or beer. Further, drinks are for the most part much smaller than those in America.
The 11 0’clock lecture today was on the topic of genetically modified plants (GMOs). Prior to class today, my understanding of GMOs was that they were useful but designed only by “evil” companies to trap farmers into buying and farming the product due to intellectual property laws. Today I learned more about the process by which scientists can use a plant’s natural behavior to modify its genetic makeup. The result is that with careful research, plants can be designed which exhibit certain traits, such as insect resistance or increased vitamin content. For example, herbicide-resistant soybeans allow farmers to spray herbicides on their fields to remove weeds without damaging the crop, resulting in higher yield with less work. The extremely safe feature was quickly adopted by farmers outside of Europe since 1997. Similarly, insect-resistant plants have genes expressed which cause production of specific proteins (which are biodegradable). The proteins generated are only harmful to insects which eat the plants, and the plant can be tailored to specific insects. As a positive result, farmers do not need to spray insecticides which can be harmful to the ecosystem and the farmers’ own health.
Ghent, Belgium was effectively the starting point for research in the area, with GMO test fields constructed as early as 1986. However, following scientists’ and the European governments’ denial of the dangers of mad cow disease to humans (1998), the public has not trusted the same groups’ approval of GMO plants. As a result, Europe allows the farming of only one such species, an insect-resistant corn. The EU allows nearly 60 other crops for import, for use in food and livestock feed. The industry of growing GMO crops has sprung up the most in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Canada.
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Read more from Perry at https://pwm001blog.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the U of A Faculty-Led: European Agriculture-Food Chain Sustainability
program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/SUSTEurozone/
