Day 1

First day of a new class - Women and Food Security. On the menu for the next couple of weeks: trips to organic and not-so-organic farms, learning to milk cows, make goat cheese and pasta, sample gelato, hear from a plethora of guestspeakers on topics including how to mobilize grassroots resistance to agro-business, pre-historic feminism, the role and impacts ofregulation in industrialized food production. The objective: to understand implications of the industrialization of food systems on historical and cultural norms as well as on food security and to learn tools to assist in analysis and program strategy development for improving food security.

Todays lecture whet the appetite with several interesting tidbits about food and women:

• women are responsible for 60-80% of food production in most developing countries
• girls are 2x as likely to die from malnutrition
• women invest an average of 90% of their income back into the household, whereas men invest an average of 30-40%
• women in Africa work 50% longer than men
• women have far less access to land and credit than men
• estimates show that if women had better access to farming land, fertilizer, & ag training, yields in sub saharan Africa could improve by 22% (even without other capital investments)

For our first afternoon session, we had a quick briefing on observation, community mapping, and transect walks before splitting up and hitting the small town of Bolsena. As we walked, we noted home gardens, small locally stocked grocery stores and other not-so-locally stocked grocery stores. And of course, once in town, who can pass up the opportunity to savor the latest flavors at the local 'slow food' gelateria?

Back at the convent, it was another masterpiece dinner from Damiano. Delectable. Ready for Day #2.