Source:
Mickie Swisher meswisher@mail.ifas.ufl.edu, (352) 392-2202, ext. 256

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new agreement between the University of Florida and a small agricultural college in southern France enables students to get credit for tasting different types of Roquefort cheese. Ooh la la!

Cheese is not the only item on the curriculum, of course. It is just one small part of an eight-week program that includes a crash course in speaking French, an introduction to European agriculture and an internship at a French farm.

“Participating students will spend four weeks in classroom instruction and four weeks working at a family farm in the rural area outside Toulouse, France,” said Mickie Swisher, an associate professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “These families make their living by agricultural means, and students will get to take part in a wide variety of activities by working with them.”

The exchange program is the result of an agreement between UF’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and France’s Purpan Agricultural College. Swisher, who is the coordinator for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ Global Gator program, said participating in international exchange programs will help students after graduation.

“From a real hard-nosed, practical perspective, this kind of program gives students an edge when applying for jobs or to professional schools,” Swisher said. “Big companies do business globally, and people working for them must handle cultural differences in a sophisticated way.”

She said that these days technical expertise alone might not be enough to set a student apart.

“Ninety percent of the students at a college like Purpan have some sort of international internship, and they’re often trilingual,” Swisher said. “When UF students are applying for jobs at big firms, that’s who they’re competing with.”

In addition to a cross-cultural experience, Swisher said the exchange agreement offers UF students a look into a different type of farming system than what is typically found in the United States.

“Here, if you grow tomatoes, they go off and you don’t necessarily know what happens to them,” she said. “With European farming systems, you’re much more apt to produce the final product on the farm and sell it directly to consumers. For example, more than 300 different kinds of cheese are produced in France, and consumers often purchase a locally produced cheese that comes from a specific small region or even a specific farm.”

Marie Lummerzheim, Purpan’s international relations director, said a different topic is covered every week during the program’s period of classroom instruction.

“The first week is an introduction to the European Union’s history, agricultural policy and relationship with the United States,” she said. “The second week is oriented on plant production and includes a lot of visits to different types of farms. The third week is animal production: dairy, meat, pork and poultry. The fourth week covers the French food business, including wine, cheese, food safety issues and so on.”

Lummerzheim said there is no French-language requisite for participation. During the first four weeks of the program, French-language instruction is provided.

“The aim is that after one month students have enough French to survive in their internship,” she said. “In these French families there’s usually at least one member who speaks English, but students will likely interact with some people who only speak French.”

She said French students coming to UF likely will be students interested in tropical and subtropical agriculture, as well as animal sciences.

Lummerzheim said she hopes the agreement will foster collaboration between UF and Purpan. Exchanging students is often the first step to developing stronger international connections, she said.

“Staff exchange could occur after our professors come here to meet with our students and get to know American professors in the same field of expertise.” she said.

UF students will start attending the Purpan program in summer 2003, while French students will start coming to UF in spring 2004. Because UF’s semester is twice as long as the program for American students, Lummerzheim said Purpan will send one student to UF for every two that go to France.

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