Mississippi State University faculty learned from visit to the Netherlands
Susan Seal and Laura Lemons, assistant professors in the MSU School of Human Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, visited this European country in late April. Along with two colleagues from the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center, they were there to participate in the joint conference of the Association of International Agricultural and Extension Education and the European Seminar on Extension and Education.
In addition to her duties at the conference, Seal participated in two tours. One took her to FloraHolland, the location of the world’s largest flower auction. The other took her to four organic or biodynamic farms in the country.
“The flower auction is an international trade platform, like the stock exchange for flowers. The volume and physical size are quite impressive. The auction conducts over 100,000 transactions a day, and the warehouse facility is the size of 220 football fields,” Seal said. “I went on that tour because we might have Mississippi growers who are interested in being a part of that cooperative.”
The majority of flowers intended for the world’s florist trade pass through this auction, but Mississippi growers do not currently trade on this floor. Seal said she was interested in learning if this could be an outlet that would allow Mississippi’s green industry to take advantage of international markets.
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