Food Studies features the voices of 11 volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. This summer, my girlfriend and I went backpacking in South East Asia. We visited Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. On our first bus ride I could already tell this trip was different -- one year of plant science different. Among all the stunning sights, I was immediately captivated by the vast rice paddies. We visited during the rainy season and the rice stood green and tall, rising about 50 centimeters …

Food Studies features the voices of 11 volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. As a kid I was always really embarrassed when my mother picked up plastic bags at the beach -- I wanted to bury myself in the sand. Something must have rubbed off though, because from my teenage years, I've always been interested in recycling and sustainability. I knew I wanted to make a change in how we live, I just didn't know how. My father grew up on a …