December 8, 1999
Students grow to appreciate farming
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
In his brief stint as a food producer last week making trail mix, Andrew Bell learned quite a bit about how food makes its way to his table. He learned about the cost and risks of farming, shipping, production, distribution and advertising, plus how it all works together to feed him and his family.
Bell was one of hundreds of fifth-graders last Thursday at 17 area elementary schools who got a taste of the farmer's life. In a program sponsored by the Michigan Farm Bureau, farmers from around the state gave presentations to nearly 1,400 second- and fifth-grade students in the Traverse City Area Public Schools, helping work through hands-on projects about insects and food production.
Like many of his classmates, Bell now knows that food does not just magically appear on grocery store shelves. Instead, there are a lot of steps and people involved in bringing it there.
"I didn't know it took so many processes just to make one food," said Bell, a member of Miss Brewer's class at Willow Hill Elementary School.
Fifth-graders also learned all the costs associated with farming, from equipment and seed to fertilizer and labor costs. They completed an exercise where they used kernels of corn to pay for all of these items out of last year's profits, leaving them with very little left over. Most were very surprised at the minuscule results left over compared to the amount of work required to farm.
"I learned that you have to give so much away next year from what you got the previous year just to get started," said Karina Chouinard, a fifth-grader at Willow Hill Elementary School.
Melvin Jenkins and Jeff Histed, two farmers from Midland who gave the presentation to Miss Brewer's class at Willow Hill, noted that agriculture is the second largest employer in the state, behind the automotive industry. Statistics show that when you include everyone involved in food production, shipping and sales, every farm job creates two other jobs to support it.
Both lifetime farmers, they were pleased at the opportunity to talk about what they do and how they do it.
"We came today because we want to promote agriculture and educate kids about what we do," said Jenkins, owner of Jens Farm, a dairy farm. "A lot of people don't realize where food comes from. They need to know it is an uphill battle to maintain a family farm, it takes 365 days a year."
The second-graders completed "Understanding Insects: Friends or Foes" to learn about how farmers deal with the insects in their work. They learned to identify bugs, differentiate between helpful and harmful bugs, make insect traps and pest control on the farm and in orchards.
"This is the first time we've done these programs, but fifth- grade students are ready to learn about the economics of farming," said Deb Rogers, district administrator for the Midland Soil and Conservation district. "Most kids today are so removed from farming they need to understand it, it might be a few generations since anyone in their family farmed."