During the summer of 2015, I had the opportunity to join Dr. Steve and Dr. Susanne Talcott along with 20 other students to tour various regions of Brazil and study sustainable nutrition and Brazilian food processing.

 

For the first three weeks of our trip, we were stationed in Viçosa, MG, Brazil at the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV). Here, we spent a week and a half studying food processing of dairy products, fruit sweets and juice, mushrooms, cassava root, cachaça, coffee, and dolce de leite. The other week and a half was spent with the nutrition department and included work with Brazil's School Lunch Program, APOV (nutrition education program for low-income areas), PMTI (nutrition education for elderly), Banco de Alimentos (Brazil's Food Bank), and UFV's cardiovascular health and celiac programs.

 

After, we ventured to Manaus, AM, Brazil where we spent our time living on a boat on the Amazon River. We visited local tribes and examined their dietary habits and ways of living, fished piranha, swam with pink river dolphins, spent the night in the rainforest, caught alligators and caimans, tasted Amazonian fruits, and made local sweets.

 

The last week was spent in Rio de Janeiro. We visited Embrapa (Brazil's department of agriculture), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the business region of Rio, Copacabana and Impanema beach, went hanggliding, and visited the famous Cristo Redentor and Sugarloaf.

 

Other cultural experiences included Portuguese lessons, samba and forho dance lessons, and eating large amounts of pao de queijo and brigadero.