09/08/06 Teaching city kids about farming

The bus pulls up to Tracy Walton's farm near Emmett and the kids from Boise are about to get a lesson about their food, specifically how it's grown. WALTON "Some of these kids have never been on a farm and to give them the experience of what farming is about and show them where food comes from and what we do for a living I think is just part of being a good steward of the land and as a farmer." Walton takes a single head of wheat to show the school kids the results of his months of field work. WALTON "It's going to take this wheat and it's going to do everything and it's going to put that in the bin. That's the only thing we are going to save out of this whole field, that little kernel." They got the whole cycle from how wheat is grown and harvested, how its ground into flour and how that flour was used to make the bread for their afternoon snack. The city kids got a ride in the combine and also learned what the words 'sticker shock' mean. WALTON "How much was the combine? In dollars? Well, it's about 250 thousand dollars." The kids went home after learning that wheat is grown in most areas of Idaho, making the state the 8th largest wheat producer in the nation. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott