I, Celine Callewaert, recently went on an exchange week to Volos in Greece. Here’s my account and my notes from all the visits. First of, this was the general schedule:
Thursday 04/04 was the arrival day, so everyone (IAAS Belgium, Ukraine, Germany, France and the Netherlands) got to Volos, with our without problems. For us, it was with problems. There was a random strike at Charleroi airport, but we finally made it through and got on the plane. With some delay we landed in Thessaloniki, jumped into a taxi to get to KTEL intercity bus station and then made our 11 pm bus. Together with the Germans we had a pleasant 2.5 hours bus ride, getting to know each other and playing some games. We were quite hungry after arrival but luckily could find a place still open and we had some delicious Souvlaki. We finally went to our hosts and slept.
Only for a little while however since on Friday the 5th we had to wake up early to go get breakfast in the student restaurant. After breakfast we took the bus to the University of Thessally. Here we got to meet most of the team of IAAS Volos and they took us out back where we learned how to plant some Sage. We then got the opportunity to partake in a food sensory panel where we had to try out 5 different pieces of bread, check for taste, mouthfeel, chewiness, colour, smell,… It’s nice to help out research in such a way. After this, one of IAAS Volos’ members, Eirini, told us about the basics of aquaponics.
We checked out the university for a bit, like the entomology department with the professor of entomology. Here they have a nice collection of all types of insects from around Greece. The students of Agriculture have to catch around 60 bugs for his course and correctly identify them, pin them to the board etc.
After lunch we had the opening speech by some professors. The professor of pomology gave us an introduction. He told us how the region of Thessaly is cooler in the winter and much warmer in the summer than Volos. You can therefore grow avocados and citrus fruits in the warm climate or have forests in the colder climate. Greece is filled with microclimates and therefore interesting for agriculture. In Volos itself you cannot grow avocados, but 10 km further away you can. This region also has the most sheep and goats, which is of course good for the feta cheese but also requires lots of fields. The transformation in agriculture was set in. In the last 30-40 years they cultivated extensively, burned the crop residues and therefore exhausted the soil and its nutrients. This brings with it, a great need for fertilisers, diseases, not enough microbial activity,… To cultivate how they do now they actually need 15% more water than is available right now. The water table is going down and salination problems are occurring. They’re actually searching for water for more than 300 meters below. Fertilisation is also polluting the other waters with eutrophication etc. The professor closed of with this quote: “Think about the environment when you put something in your mouth. Don’t just think about the food pyramid, but also the environmental food pyramid”. This means of course, more fruits and veggies, less red meat and buy LOCAL!
Eirini Spiliopoulou, a member of IAAS Volos, & Ioannis Karapanagiotidis gave a presentation titled: “Fish in Mediterranean diet: nutritional value, consumption and supply”. The nutritional benefits of fish are many: they have lots of omega 3, vitamin D, iodine, selenium, low fat, animal protein,… This brings with it many health benefits and affects several health disorders such as: coronary heart disease, sudden cardiac death, rheumatoid arthritis, atopic illness, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, bronchial asthma, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, various neurological conditions.
In 1961 about 9 kg per person was consumed, in 2015 this rose up to 20.2 kg per person per year. How will we accommodate this growing demand for fish? One of the possible solutions might be aquaponics and aquaculture since natural fish is being overfished and depleted. Aquaculture is now the fastest growing animal food production sector. Professor Ioannis S. Boziaris told us more about satisfying the consumer with his presentation on “Fish safety and freshness”. It was all about how to keep our fish fresh and for a longer time. Since fish production will double by 2030. It still has a minimal impact compared to husbandry but is at high risk for contaminants and fish perishes faster.
After the opening speech of the exchange week we had the chance to work on our soft skills with a soft-skill training by the two newest Greek trainers: Eleni and Afrodite. In 4 hours they taught us all about active listening and body language. We learned the definition, what we can use it for, why it is important and how to do it properly. Through games and exercise we had a chance to practice our new skills. After freshening up we all met together at a bar to get to know each other better. That was the first day!
