About this tour
On our Study Tour, we will journey by low-carbon travel through Europe to the Alpine region of northern Italy, centering our stay in Milan. Here we will explore how taste, tradition, and sustainability intersect in one of the world’s most storied food landscapes. This tour brings together small-scale farming, artisanal food production, and global food industries, offering a unique lens to study how resilient food systems are shaped by both local heritage and global pressures. Through farm visits, factory tours, urban foodscape explorations, and encounters with producers, we will experience firsthand the challenges and opportunities of sustaining food traditions in a changing climate, both culturally and environmentally speaking.
Alongside these experiences, we will engage with concepts and research perspectives that critically examine the role of innovation, policy, and consumer culture in shaping the future of food. By moving between artisanal and industrial contexts, we will reflect on the tensions and synergies between tradition and modernity, local and global, and taste and sustainability—bringing concepts of resilience, food sovereignty, and sustainability to life in one of Europe’s most iconic food regions.
Learning outcomes
- Examine how Alpine food systems balance tradition and innovation—from small-scale artisanal producers to large industrial actors—in shaping sustainability, resilience, and regional identity.
- Explore how landscapes and economies across the region intersect with food practices, highlighting the roles of (bio)diversity, quality, and locality in the food system.
- Critically reflect on the tensions between local food sovereignty and globalized markets, and how these dynamics inform (or not) pathways toward resilient and just food futures.
- Engage in your personal learning process outside the classroom by actively participating and challenging your current ideas and assumptions.
Possible activities
- Visit small-scale farms to learn how producers balance tradition, biodiversity, and economic sustainability in Alpine food systems
- Meet and interact with farmers to gain hands-on experience with artisanal production, such as lentils, ancient grains, or artisanal cheeses, and reflect on the labor and social costs behind sustainable food practices
- Explore local food markets to understand how regional identity and tradition are expressed through taste, seasonality, and place-based products
- Tour large-scale food production facilities, such as pasta or cheese factories, to examine the industrial side of food systems and its relationship to sustainability and tradition
- Meet with researchers and practitioners to connect Alpine foodscapes with broader questions of resilience, globalization, and sustainability