Day 7: Sustainability Practices

Today ended up being pretty short, overall. We began with French class again and reviewed what we had learned in the previous days. After this, we had a lecturer talk to the class about Multicriterium of Cropping Systems. In the lecture, we learned about the basics of cropping systems and their role as being a crop community with management practices that are related to its use. They can be characterized by the type of crop being grown, order of succession, and range of techniques applied to the system's management. We discussed the various and different approaches to natural inoculation of soils and adding bacteria to the soil can help with the soil's overall health. The lecture was quite interesting and the lecturer was very engaging. For the remainder of our lecture, we were divided into groups and analyzed different key aspects of the crop systems from seven different farms. From the analysis, groups looked at things like overall nitrogen loss in the farm's soil, economic benefits, social benefits, etc. After each group presented their findings to the class, we found that different farms excelled in different areas based in the variation of inputs they focused on in their crop system. With this, the lecturer concluded that their is no right or wrong way to run a cropping system, but rather what matters is what you as a farmer want to place your own emphasis on achieving. After the lecture ended, we were free to leave. We split into groups and wondered around the city and the city center. I finally found myself wondering home and laid down to take a nap. I woke up to a group of individuals walking into the house singing Happy Birthday and later came to find that it was my host mother's birthday! We sat and enjoyed some champaign and crackers, ending with dinner and me heading to bed.