Mission 2014 Field Trip: Day 1

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Day 1

Good morning!

As all of use here in Sirsi prepare for our first day, we keep in mind the goals and hopes we set for ourselves this week. After spending a full semester researching global food security issues and proposing solutions, our first priority is to mesh theory with practice and apply what we learned about India's food security to the realities we experience while here. Back home, it is easy to look at photos of villages and farmers and think that you know what's happening; but without a real example in front of us, it is extremely difficult to give our thoughts and ideas a grounded perspective.

As a group, our hope is to take full advantage of our time spent in India, experiencing the lives and culture of the people here first hand. Everything we do, from speaking to local farmers and villagers to eating Indian food, we consider valuable information around which to pit our preconceptions.

We are all looking forward to comparing our project work from Mission 2014 to our new experiences in India. Personally, I hope to put some names and faces to the issues we've studied for so long. Adding a human element to any project further reminds us of the urgency to find a sustainable solution, and I hope that finding such an element here will add to our pressing desire to solve growing food security issues.

With that, we leave you and begin our first day in Sirsi, one that is sure to be full of both educational and fun experiences. Until next time!

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About the Class

Mission 2014 is part of Terrascope, a learning program for MIT freshman. Each year the program begins with the class (12.000 Solving Complex Problems, Mission 201x). For this year their mission was to design a plan that will produce and distribute enough food to feed the planet over the next century, while ensuring that efficiency and equity are maximized with minimal disruption to the environment. With a world population of 9 billion expected by 2050 – and a billion people currently malnourished – we simply cannot continue with business as usual. An integrated cost-effective global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security. This must include a major re-thinking of agricultural practices as well as modifying the diets of much of the world's population. The students of 12.000 researched the problem and presented their solution in the form of a website as well as a public presentation followed by interrogation by a panel of experts. The website and presentation were a huge success.

About Terrascope

In the Spring semester many Terrascope students take part in one or more of three activities. These include: a hands-on class (1.016) where the students work on designing, building and implementing solutions to their problem; Terrascope Radio (SP360), where the students produce a series of radio programs on their topic including the field trip; and lastly the Terrascope field experience.

Each year alumni mentors play a very important part in the success of Terrascope. Many come to class and group meetings, communicate via email, and are generally extremely helpful if not a little bit jealous of being a MIT freshman! This year we are fortunate that three of our mentors are making the trip with us—Bob Gurnitz, Johnny Yang and Bhupendra Khetani

Acknowledgements

Many people have helped to make this trip possible. At Earthwatch the complex logistics have been coordinated by Grace Velardi and Alana Jones in the U.S. and the educational program by Rachel Batley in the U.K. At MIT our Terrascope administrator, Debra Aczel has spent countless hours guiding everyone through the acquisition of visas, answering many many questions, and remaining enthusiastic and upbeat. We all owe Debra a great deal of gratitude and hopefully the trip will go off flawlessly and she will be able to enjoy it and learn alongside the rest of us.

The trip this year is supported by the Baruch Foundation whose generosity ensures that another Terrascope class can take part in an international learning experience.