What are we teaching about agriculture?

A couple of weeks ago Bro. Tommy asked us all a question in church that has stuck with me and now crosses my mind every day.  When he asked us “What are we teaching our children?” my mind starting racing.  I immediately started questioning myself and thinking about what all I have and have not taught Fisher.  Of course for the next few days I thought long and hard about what we have been teaching Fisher about Christ and about Church.  Then, I began to think about what are teaching Fisher about hard work, manners, helping others and of course about agriculture.

Growing up a family farm I understood the events that occurred there.  I understood where my food comes from, how it was produced and all of the hard work that was put into that food source.  I also assumed that everyone else understood these concepts as well.  I then understood how far off I was with my assumption once I left Smith Mills.

While some do realize the hard work, time and money that is invested in producing our food, sadly there are people that do not understand where their food comes from.  Unfortunately too many people would rather believe what they read on social media or listen to bogus rumors about their food sources instead of taking the time to do their research and educate themselves about their food using reliable, science based information.  If the general public claims to be so health conscious, then why won’t more people believe the real facts about farming and food production rather than what they read on social media?

Which brings me back the original question, what are teaching our children?  I have the privilege of conducting school programs and have the opportunity to talk with our youth.  While they are such a joy to be around and extremely polite, many of them do not understand where their food comes from.  I feel like as a parent and as an educator, I have a responsibility to educate about our food sources and how blessed we are to live where we have access to the world’s safest food supply.  However, this is isn’t something that can be done by one person.  This is something that takes a whole community of agriculture advocates; parents, volunteers, teachers, farmers, the media, etc.

The most important things we all can do is to educate ourselves using reliable, science based resources.  The most reliable sources of science based information comes from universities.  I suggest maybe starting with Dr. Paul Vincelli’s blog on insights into food system sustainability at http://out-of-the-box-vincelli.blogspot.com/ or one of his papers at http://www2.ca.uky.edu/ANR/PDF/QuotesConsumingGMOCrops.pdf.  Once we have educated ourselves, then we need to educate our children so that they understand the amount of hard work, time and money that farmers invest in producing a safe and abundant food supply for us all.

For more information on educating ourselves and our children about our food sources and about agriculture, contact the McLean County Cooperative Extension Office at (270)273-3690.  Educational programs of the Cooperative Extension Service serve all people regardless of race, color, age, sex, religion, disability or national origin.