AREM: an original joint educational program to improve the sustainability of agricultural natural resources and environmental management.

A joint program in Agricultural Resources and Environmental Management (AREM) was developed by faculty at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas (K-State), and Ecole d'Ingenieurs de Purpan (EI Purpan), Toulouse, France. The program addresses a critical need to train students with skills to address AREM issues using knowledge and tools that span economic, sociologic, and agro-ecologic disciplines. The AREM program includes the following critical elements: 1) Exchange of knowledge and experience for both faculty and students, resulting in improved training of our students and a broader global perspective for our faculty; 2) Development and implementation of a new interdisciplinary AREM Certificate Program at K-STATE, and development of a new interdisciplinary environmental management speciality for EI Purpan; 3) Agro-Environmental and landscape problem analysis and solving, including prospective issues and participatory methods, through joint classroom discussion and project team work between US and French students; and 4) Joint teaching of selected courses through distance learning methods. Our philosophy is to learn by doing, even by distance! The international composition of faculty and students allows us to confront the agro-environmental impacts of different fundamental concepts of society: the market-oriented North American experience, the regulation-oriented European experience, and the development-oriented Developing Country experience. The AREM has proven to be a laboratory for new teaching methods and learning experiences. Students have learned basic technological AREM topics and methods, developed transversal competences in relation to sustainable development, studied and practiced a systemic approach to environmental impact assessment, and applied their knowledge and skills in team-based interdisciplinary projects.