03/18/08 Learning About Ag

Learning About Ag. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. This week some youngsters in the Tri-Cities, Washington area are getting the chance to learn more about the food that they eat. The event is called Farm Fair and according to Walter Neff it's a fun and educational time. NEFF: Well we put together this to educate the 5th graders about agriculture and we want these young minds to realize that when they go to the grocery store, milk doesn't come out of the back of Safeway, it doesn't come out of the back of Albertson's and neither does bread or anything like that and it's all farm grown. Neff is the past president of the Pasco Chamber of Commerce. His daughter Melissa Neff-Hill is the chairman of Farm Fair and they have been working together on the event for a number of years. Quite a number of local businesses and organizations have jumped on board to help make the event a success including FFA members from the area. Walter is a wheat farmer and likes to tell the kids how it goes from wheat to a sandwich. NEFF: We talk about how wheat's grown and where it goes and how it's made into bread and what one bushel weighs and how many loaves of bread you get out of a bushel of wheat and what a bushel of wheat costs and what the bread costs in the store so you know it pretty well opens their minds up and lets them think about ag. Fifth graders from around the area will be making the trip to the Benton-Franklin County Fairgrounds to attend the event. NEFF: We're looking at right about 908 students and we have people coming from as far as Prescott, Waitsburg, Richland, Kennewick, Pasco. I think there's some coming from the Connell area; we have people from Kahlotus coming. We have people from all over the area. Neff really hopes that the kids will take away the message that agriculture is something that is very important. NEFF: When, if Mom and Dad are driving to Spokane and they see these wheat fields and/or they drive by a feedlot, they kind of know about cattle and where they come from. They go by a potato field they can tell Mom and Dad  well they are raising potatoes there and they know a little bit about agriculture that way. Of course with Easter coming up, they will be talking about the fact that the eggs that they color actually come from a chicken, even though the Easter Bunny might deliver them. He relies on agriculture for his product just like the rest of us. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.