Students learn about exotic products and different agricultural methods from the locals in Tanzania. Photo: Søren Hoffmann Hansen
A global organic farmer in the making Danish Søren Vang, a former political science student, is in Tanzania to study organic farming first-hand. The 21-year-old is one of around 150 students on the Global Organic Farmer programme, which, as the only programme in Europe, offers students a comprehensive organic, global agricultural training. By Signe Hansen | Photos: Søren Vang
Running on its second year, Kalø Organic Agricultural College’s Global Organic Farmer programme is attracting students of a wide range of backgrounds, ages and nationalities. The course is taught in English and open to all European citizens. Many do not have a traditional background in farming but are, like Vang, attracted to the course’s comprehensive programme, which covers 26 | Issue 97 | February 2017
all aspects of organic farming including sustainability, innovation, product and concept development, and sales. “It’s a very different agricultural education. It’s aimed at creating farmers who not only produce but also market their own products, and I think that’s very important to our agricultural industry,” says Vang and adds: “At the moment, the contact between the city and the farmland is poor.
People don’t understand how much food is worth and why it actually ought to cost more than it does.”
Learning from the locals One of the main objectives of the Global Organic Farmer programme is to enable students to act as organic consultants all over the world and thereby spread Denmark’s expertise within the field. As a step on the way, Vang and his class are currently in Tanzania on a four-weeklong knowledge sharing trip to see what global organic farming looks like in a developing nation. In the African country, the students get to experience the production of a range of exotic products