The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Global Programs Office connects students and faculty to the world. Meaningful international engagement opportunities allow faculty and students to serve globally, enrich communities at home and abroad, and develop partnerships to address the most-challenging issues faced by society.
CALS in the World
Thompson (right) recently led a group of faculty on a trip to Kenya, where CALS Global is building partnerships to improve food security.
The Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences — which has long been a leader in empowering people around the world to produce sustainable food while increasing productivity — will become an even larger knowledge platform when it presents the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report® in 2019.
The GAP Report is a call to action, urging world leaders to invest in proven strategies to produce food, feed, fiber, and biofuel in a sustainable manner to meet the demands and needs of a growing world. The report’s findings are presented each year to an international audience in Des Moines, Iowa, at the World Food Prize/Borlaug Dialogue. In previous years, the report was produced by the Global Harvest Initiative.
“The college is well positioned to serve as a host for the report given the breadth of its programs in food, agriculture, and nutrition and its emphasis on addressing global food security issues,” said Tim Sands, president of Virginia Tech. “The college’s initiative to grow public-private partnerships, its investment in international programs, and the new Innovation Campus in Alexandria, Virginia, all benefit the GAP Report and its stakeholders.”
Students learn about agriculture, food security, conservation—and themselves—during South Africa study abroad trip
“Agriculture and food security are the perfect lenses for the study of South Africa,” said Mark Reiter, who was one of two leaders on the trip. “Whether it is talking about race and the challenges of re-appropriating farms in the wake of apartheid, or it is examining conservation agricultural practices in an arid country with issues of food inequality, many of the challenges that make South Africa so interesting and dynamic are connected to agriculture. Agriculture is a common thread that unites us all.”
2019 Global Food Security Symposium
Virginia Tech students traveled with Ozzie Abaye, a professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, to the 2019 Global Food Security Symposium in Washington DC.
CALS in Service
Virginia Tech President Tim Sands explains how the university works inside the commonwealth and across the globe to help increase crop yields while reducing the use of toxic chemicals.
About CALS Global
- The mission of CALS Global is to create partnerships, discover opportunities, and empower success — to serve globally.
- The vision of CALS Global is to ensure that CALS is recognized worldwide as a premier destination for agriculture and life sciences.
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