By Jacob Kosman
Hello, I am Jacob Kosman and I am a student at Austin Community College in Austin Texas. My primary field of study is Agricultural Science with the intention of moving forward with Agricultural Leadership at Texas A&M. My specialty is agronomy (study of crop production) and horticulture (study of garden cultivation), but I do have an educational background in animal husbandry and arboriculture (study of tree management). I love plant cultivation and especially adore tending my home garden. I am particularly drawn to growing food for my family and growing beautiful flowers to not only protect my produce, but to cut and arrange as gifts. Agriculture is a predominant part of my life and I have a deep respect for every ounce of labor that goes into the food production, shipment, and preparation. Our food system is vast and foundational to our society.
In my free time where I’m not gardening, I am in the tabletop game hobby space. I love roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons, I play miniature wargames like Warhammer 40,000, and I play a lot of board games. I spend a lot of my free time painting miniatures for these hobbies or just playing the games outright. I have a collection of board games about 300 strong and own thousands of hand painted miniatures. My draw to the hobby is artistic creativity both as a painter and a storyteller, as well as close time with my friends and family. I love spending long afternoons sitting at tables with my loved ones, hootin’ and hollerin’ about every little dice roll and miniature movement.
My study is sending me to Japan, and this is what has connected me to the Tyler Center for Global Studies. It has been my life-long dream to visit Japan, and while my decade of military service sent me to many beautiful locations around the world, Japan was never one of them. My intention with this study is not only to increase my proficiency with the Japanese language, but to further my Agricultural research by interviewing Japanese farmers. My focus in Agriculture is on sustainability, the idea of farming in ways that preserve resources, land, labor, and our precious ecosystem.
Japan has high yields of rice production despite a relatively small land mass and I am particularly interested in their land conservation methods in rice cultivation. Texas is a major producer of rice and I am hoping to learn preservation means from Japanese farmers that I may bring back to cultivators here in the states. I intend to visit rural sites as well as industrial plots to get a wider understanding and respect for Japanese rice cultivation. Due to the cultural significance of rice in Japan, I also intend to spend time learning about their history involving rice in an effort to show maximum respect to the Japanese people.
I’m eager and deeply looking forward to making connections overseas with people who love growing food as much as I do. I hope to learn so much not only about their methods, but also their culture, and about the people themselves. I will make the most of my time with interviews and photography, ideally getting hands-on experience with cultivation alongside the workers who feed their country. I thank the Tyler Center for their interest and support of my studies and am excited to share my adventures and findings with all of you.
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