In March 2022, Andrew Wefald, Ph.D., associate professor of leadership studies, and Justin Kastner, professor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology, participated in the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership (KARL) international study tour to the United Arab Emirates.
Kastner was a member of the 15th class of KARL, a two-year leadership development and rural/agriculture networking program for Kansans working in and around the agriculture industry. Each KARL provides a two-year (three years during pandemics!) program culminating in an international study tour. For the 2022 KARL class, the tour was in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Andrew Wefald was able to join the tour as a guest, and documented the journey in this blog entry.
The UAE is a small country (32,300 square miles) on the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia. There are about 10 million people in the UAE.The UAE was established in 1971 when Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan united seven “emirates” (regions ruled by a principal leader, usually a “sheik”) and ended its relationship with Britain as a protectorate.
The 15th class of KARL included 28 leaders from across Kansas representing a broad range of professions in agriculture and rural communities. This class began their journey in 2019 and just prior to the pandemic visited Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Since the resumption of activities in 2021, the class has continued learning in various regions of Kansas and Lincoln, Nebraska, participating in leadership activities and training sessions.
Our tour started in Dubai, the largest city in the UAE. We visited the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world and had lunch with some local Emirates to learn about the local culture. (For Mission Impossible fans, the Burj Khalifa is the very building that Tom Cruise dared to scale!)
The next visit was to Camelicious, a camel dairy farm with over 10,000 camels in the emerging niche-market opportunity for camel-derived dairy products. This is the first and largest camel milking farm in the world. We toured the facility and got to sample some of the products they make – they were pretty good!
This trip and tour were focused on agriculture and we visited several farms. One of those was the Emirates Hydroponic Farm. This farm was founded in 2005 and is located between the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This farm uses greenhouses and modern water saving techniques for produce (fruits and vegetables) fully grown in the UAE. This is the only farm of its kind in the Middle East and it has computerized climate and humidity control. This method reduces the need for pesticides and extends the growing season in the UAE. In the summer it gets too hot for anything to grow, even in a greenhouse.
Another farm we visited was the Emirates Bio Farm. This farm was started in 2016 and is the largest organic farm in the UAE. Their mission is to contribute to the establishment of a secure and sustainable food system that promotes healthy living and the protection of the environment while providing genuine, certified organic food to the market. Both the farms we visited play an important role for the UAE in contributing to their food security as much of their food is imported.
Indeed, despite some advances in the last few decades, today 80% of the UAE’s food supply is still imported. Quite simply, there are high farming costs in the UAE, and the UAE purposefully does not engage in so-called protectionist (e.g., import quotas) practices, which makes it doubly challenging for UAE farmers to compete with world food market prices. However, there are some opportunities—for example, different kinds of vegetables can be grown in the UAE in both outdoor environments and greenhouses.
An especially fun stop for the KARL group was the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital. Falcons are the national bird of the UAE and for much of their history falcons were used by the Bedouin people in hunting to survive in such a harsh environment. Falcons are culturally important as well, representing some of the historical values of the Bedouin people such as courage, honor, patience, companionship, and nobility. The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital is the first public institution in the UAE providing comprehensive veterinary health care services exclusively for falcons (now all birds and poultry species). The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital has become the largest falcon hospital in the UAE and in the world with a patient influx of more than 110,000 patients since its opening – serving around 11,000 falcons yearly. We all got to hold falcons at this stop!
A key theme for the KARL class’s learning was environmental sustainability and water conservation, and the tour destinations included innovative sustainability-related and climate-appropriate enterprises. One stop was to a sustainable community established in 2015, a net-zero energy project covering 115 acres on the outskirts of Dubai. This community is an all-in-one community with housing, shopping, activities, and schools. Some of the practices in this community include vertical farming, electric car sharing, and zero waste. The approach of this community focuses on the social experiences of the residents, the environmental impact of the community, and the economic sustainability of the community.
Another visit was to Masdar City, a zero carbon city project. This project and city was similar to The Sustainable City, but on a bigger scale. As a city, it is a low-carbon development with many tech companies, shops, restaurants, housing, and public green spaces.
The World Expo was an amazing experience. Many countries were represented in this modern day world’s fair – the first in the middle east. World fairs have been events that bring the world together as an opportunity for nations to meet, exchange ideas, showcase inventions, promote culture, and build business ties. Each country was promoting their contributions to these areas and showcasing their innovations – many around climate issues. The expo is an enormous event and spans over 1,000 acres. The theme for the week we were there was water – the precious resource. Some of the country buildings were huge with long lines to get in.
We learned much on our study tour about climate change, sustainable agriculture approaches, and navigating a country, region, and culture much different than our own. One instance of navigating differing cultural assumptions happened when we visited the Grand Mosque. The Grand Mosque is the 4th largest mosque in the world and a beautiful place. There are strict rules for dress at the mosque and the rules are especially strict for women. About half of the women in our group were pulled aside for not conforming to the dress code and they had to purchase dress code appropriate garments to enter the mosque. This was a moment of learning for all of us – that our interpretation of another culture’s rules may not match the home country’s interpretation.
More learning happened when we went shopping in the local markets. Our negotiating skills were tested by expert negotiators! We had to be on our toes to get the best prices and we had to be willing to walk away if we weren’t comfortable with the deal. That didn’t happen for all of us, which was another learning experience.
Overall, this was more than just a great international trip. Our intercultural skills were tested and grew, our connections were strengthened, and our understanding of the world expanded.
