Western Flanders Visits

Friday, May 16, 2008

Vegetable Auction, Feed Mill and Ardo Visits

After a two-hour morning bus ride, we began the day with
viewing a simultaneous vegetable auction at Cooperatieve Veiling Roeselare
CVBA.  We all had absolutely no idea what
to expect, and were a little anxious to see what we were going to be spending
our morning doing.  Upon arriving, we all
were really surprised to find that it was an organization that allowed buyers
to bid on vegetables grown all over Belgium; growers drop off their vegetables
at the Roeselare Auction and they are bid on through big screens (kind of like
the Chicago Board of Trade).  The prices
fluctuate based on how much supply of the crop there is.  We then got a tour of the facility, showing
the efficiency of the logistics.  We
could smell fresh fruits and vegetables-we all thought we were in our local
Jewel’s produce section!

After the vegetable auction, we arrived at Vandenavenne
Voeders, which is a livestock feed production plant.  The executives clearly explained quality
assurance and risk management involved with the business.  We saw differences between the EU and USA,
especially in terms of GMOs.  To finish
off the visit, we were lucky to get a short tour of the facility, where we were
able to see it all in real life!

LUNCH TIME!!!! When we got on the bus, we all were happy to
know we were on our way to a REAL Belgian castle.  It looked like a Disney Movie castle and
there was actually a restaurant there. 
We had a delicious lunch of white asparagus soup and bread, halibut
casserole, French fries (of course, we are in Belgium), and spinach
leaves.  It was so delicious and we were
all very full when we finished.  But, we
still eagerly ran outside to take pictures of the beautiful castle.  We definitely were excited to see such an
ancient part of European history.

Finally, we went to Ardo N.V., which is a producer and
seller of frozen vegetables.  We learned
they use a lot of these vegetables for pizza and soups that we might buy at the
local supermarket.  After a quick introduction
to the company, we were very fortunate to receive a tour of the
factory-something they do NOT do for such large groups.  It was awesome to see how these vegetables go
from being fresh off the farm, to cleaned, chopped, bagged and shipped in such
a short amount of time.  What an
efficient production process!

Back to the bus!  We
ended the evening all celebrating our classmate, Cassie’s, 20th birthday.  It was a great night!  We are sad to leave Belgium tomorrow, but we
know there is so much more to look forward to in the rest of Europe.

By: Jessica Lindgren, Nicole Manning, Katherine Murray, and
Monika Shah

Posted by Meredith Blumthal