Contact: Ariel Cleasby-Heaven, Extended Education and Summer Programs, (360) 650-3717 or ariel.cleasby-heaven@wwu.edu

BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University is offering a weeklong intensive travel course, “Tropical Eco-Farming and Sustainability in Costa Rica,” this spring, from March 20-29, 2010.

The course is open to the public and three information sessions will be held to present details on the program: at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1 and Saturday, Dec. 5 in Communications Facility 225 on the WWU campus, and at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, at 405 32nd Street, Room 360, in Bellingham.

Food grown in the tropics graces the table of nearly every household in the United States. Few of us ever have the opportunity to visit the fields and farms where these products are grown, or understand the challenges to growing them in environmentally and socially sustainable ways. The course will examine how the country is using ecologically sound methods of growing food.

Participants will learn from farmers firsthand on how they are reducing environmental impacts while producing food to keep up with the growing demand. The goal of this “eco-agricultural” course is to identify agricultural practices that help rural farmers, learn about the challenges and successes in tropical agriculture and investigate new opportunities for sustainability.

For more information, visit the EESP Web site, www.ExtendedEd.wwu.edu or contact eesp@wwu.edu or (360) 650-3308. Course details for “Tropical Eco-Farming and Sustainability in Costa Rica” can be found at http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/eesp/costarica/index.shtml.

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