RUW Foundation and the Rural Sociology Group organized a studytrip to Poland. In a 10 day intensive program different cities and rural areas in Poland were visited, interesting people and organizations met and farm work is done. The theme of the trip is “Glocalise”. Students are asked to prepare themselves well on different themes in groups before leaving and to write a concluding reflexive paper on their impressions and findings, and to write a blog. This fourth blog is about the logistical side of the trip by:

Louise van der Stok, Rosan de Groot, Hilde-Marije Dorresteijn, Hanbin Qiao, Annika Meuche, Mathilde Sanglier, Malou Heidekamp

Tuesday July 9^th. On the program today were in the morning a visit to the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and in the afternoon we visited the Dutch Embassy. Both with the main focus on the agricultural sector and its development, and especially on policies that (try to) regulate Polish agriculture.

At 9.30am we received a warm welcome at the Ministry with coffee, tea and lots of toast and biscuits, after which we started the session with some facts about Polish agriculture. Some numbers: out of the 38 million Polish inhabitants, 23.3 million people live in urban areas and 14.8 million in rural areas. Furthermore is 93.2% of Polish territory is classified as rural area. Continue reading →