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SIT Study Abroad/IHP: Food Systems: Agriculture, Sustainability, and Justice (Outgoing Program)

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  • Locations: Quito, Ecuador
  • Program Terms: Fall, Spring
  • Homepage: Click to visit
  • Program Sponsor: SIT/World Learning 
Dates / Deadlines:
Dates / Deadlines:
Term Year App Deadline Decision Date Start Date End Date
Spring 2025 11/01/2024 11/08/2024 TBA TBA
Fact Sheet:
Fact Sheet:
Minimum GPA: 2.5 Major(s): Accounting, African and African American Studies, Community Justice, Economics, Environmental Studies, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology
Housing: Homestay Language of Instruction: English
Program Description:

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SIT Study Abroad: IHP - Rethinking Food Security: People, Agriculture, and Politics

International Honors Programs (IHP) are unique within SIT’s portfolio. In one semester, you’ll deeply examine a single issue, such as climate change, healthcare, or human rights, in four cultural contexts on four continents.

Study how the dynamics of food production, distribution, and provisioning are affected by population growth, rapid urbanization, and globalization, and which responses offer the most promise for sustainable food futures at local, national, and global levels.

Program Highlights

  • Consider how to meet food availability, access, and utilization demands when approximately 870 million people per year—more than 12 percent of the global population—suffer from chronic undernourishment. 
  • Discuss food sustainability with activists, professors, and well-known innovators in Berkeley and Santa Cruz.
  • Learn about the smallholder agriculture and explore conventional and alternative farming practices in Malawi.
  • Examine fishery traditions, dairy cooperatives, and social movements and development initiatives impacting agriculture in India.
  • Study the EU’s complex and innovative food safety and trade regulations and talk with policy experts at multiple United Nations institutions in Italy.

Please visit the SIT Study Abroad website for details on the program courses (including syllabi), program sites, and housing.

Key Topics of Study

  • How we will feed and nourish nine billion people by 2050 and do so while sustaining the agricultural livelihoods of nearly one billion people
  • How we will conserve our natural environments and the green infrastructure we rely on and empower local communities to determine their own food sustainability futures
  • How we will confront questions about biodiversity and genetically modified crops, land rights and corruption, environmental degradation and conflict, and natural disasters and resilience
  • How global issues like industrialization, changing agricultural conditions, technological innovation, and rapid urbanization factor into food security challenges and opportunities
  • How thought leaders, including Alice Waters and Vandana Shiva, and social movements such as the slow food and local farming movements have had an impact on food policy and futures in the global north and south

Money Matters

Be sure to discuss how study abroad costs are handled at your school with your study abroad advisor.  

SIT tuition and room and board fees include the following:

All educational costs, including educational excursions

  • All accommodations and meals for the full program duration
  • Transportation to and from the airport, and on all educational excursions
  • Health and accident insurance

Scholarships:

  • SIT awards nearly $1.6 million in scholarships and grants annually.
  • All scholarships and grants are need-based.
  • Awards generally range from $500 to $5,000.  
  • The SIT Pell Grant Match provides matching grants to all students receiving Federal Pell Grant funding when it is applied to an SIT Study Abroad semester program. 
  • Contact the financial aid and/or study abroad office(s) at your college or university to learn if your school’s scholarships and grants and federal and state aid programs can be applied to an SIT Study Abroad program.

Contact SIT Study Abroad