Camarones en Colombia: La Primera Semana en Colombia

As a part of my Masters degree, I was accepted into the International Field Program at the New School for the summer. I will be living and working in the rural town of La Merced in Colombia for the next 9 weeks. I am part of a team of 4 other New School students, as well as 1 student from the Universidad Autonóma de Manizales (UAM).

A Bit of Background:

After the coffee crisis in the 1990s, the La Merced government channeled a majority of its resources into agriculture, which has limited the economic growth of the area. La Merced is a town that has been particularly affected by conflict in the country and there is a large population of displaced people living in the town. There has been a significant loss in population and youth retention. In addition, the ongoing distrust and tension between residents that were born out of past conflict, has hindered community collaboration, and heavily contributed to the economic stagnation in the town.

For the past 3 years, teams of New School and UAM students have partnered with the municipality of La Merced to address the challenges of the town. In an effort to diversify the local economy and create a wider range of job opportunities, a Tourism Association was established last year. While the development of tourism could be a viable secondary industry for the town, the infrastructure and local capacity for this development is currently lacking. Since food is a central part of cultural tourism, there is a need for a stronger local food system, increased food security, and greater local food identity in La Merced. Despite the abundance and variety of locally grown food, food insecurity persists in the disempowered community of the town. Currently, farmers and purchasers are traveling long distances to Medellin and Manizales to buy and sell produce. Farmers lose profit through transportation costs and middlemen, and purchasers incur the costs of time and travel. The result is an inefficiency of local markets, lack of access to locally produced nutritious foods, and indicates a lack of trust and collaboration within La Merced’s food system.

Project Description:

This summer, our project will focus on a deeper analysis of La Merced’s food system and agriculture. In addition, we will create more farmer and purchaser collaboration with the incorporation of post-conflict mediation strategies. Also, we hope to partner with agricultural extension agencies in the town to promote agroecological farming practices for sustainability. The long term objective of these tasks is the creation of a locally structured food system in La Merced which will keep more profit and value within the local economy of the town, as well as create a strong local food identity.

Week 1:

I have been preparing for the trip for the entire semester and am so excited that the time has finally come! I arrived on May 30th and just finished my first week in Manizales, along with 9 other New School students. We’ve been staying at Kumanday Hostel, which has been great! Eating lots of delicious Colombian food (I love ajiaco!), and exploring the town of Manizales.

We got to meet our Colombian student counterparts this week. Julian is a Political Science student at UAM, and he will be joining our team in La Merced. In addition to meeting Julian and working on initial team building exercises and project design, I’ve been able to learn more about Colombia through a number of other trips this week: