Italy is known for its made-from-scratch food—from olive oil and balsamic vinegar to prosciutto and Parmigiano Reggiano. Fifteen students were able to get a taste of all that the country offers during a Learning Abroad Center program in May.

During the three-week Sustainable Food Systems of Sicily and Florence program, students toured local and regional food producers, discussing the ethical and environmental considerations for food production and consumption.

Exploring the culture of food

Sophia Haley, a rising senior majoring in finance, was not thrilled that the Carlson School of Management required a study abroad experience, especially as she was looking forward to a break between finals and starting her summer internship at U.S. Bank. 

“When I decided to go on this experience, I was kind of mad because I wouldn’t have time to make croissants or bake my bread,” she said. “I was a little miffed at not getting my time off, but I look back and laugh at that now because it was so much better.”

She ended up choosing the program after seeing the emphasis on food culture in the syllabus. 

“I really related and connected to that,” Haley said. “My family definitely connects over food. We always did lefse day growing up. My grandparents, my mom, my aunt, my sisters—we’d all get together and make lefse by hand.”

It’s hard to put Italy’s food culture into words, according to Haley.

“You really have to be there and feel it,” she said. “There’s such a history to all of their food. It feels like every city that we went to had some sort of historical food connection.”

One notable—and historic—item on the menu was a 100-year-old balsamic vinegar from a local producer. 

“It was so thick and sweet because it’s just been kind of evaporating and reducing for 100 years, so you got this incredible flavor from it,” Haley said. “It was unrecognizable from what we’d all had in the states.”

Analyzing the multiple facets of sustainability

Haley’s favorite excursion was to an olive oil producer. She was working on a project for the class analyzing the sustainability of olive oil from an environmental, sociopolitical, and economic lens.

“I had that background information of what kind of questions to ask and what to look for when we toured the farm,” Haley said. “That class project prepared me for the experience and the excursion and I got more out of it because of it.”

Visiting local producers and learning about food production was a big departure from her finance major.

“I didn’t know anything about the topic of the program,” she said. “I was just shocked by how much I loved it.”

She was particularly interested in the different ways that farms can approach environmental sustainability, from biodynamic farming to natural pest management, and how those methods affect how much production is needed to feed the planet.

“What a lot of people think about with sustainability is just about the environment,” said Michael White, the Morse Alumni Distinguished Professor in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences, who led the program. “But the whole idea of sustainability is a complex three-legged stool that involves social, environmental, and economic aspects.”

White wants students to come away from the program understanding their place in the world’s food system and its sustainability, including how they can make a difference with their food choices.

“Every dollar you spend on food supports the food system you want,” White said.“If you go to the cheapest grocery store and buy the cheapest food, then you may not be paying all of the social and economic costs of production or supporting the food system you want. I want the students to come away with knowledge of their power and their role in this.”