The Rural Voice, 1993-02, Page 26n an age when urban isolation
from the production of food
leaves children thinking food
comes from the supermarket,
and when specialization on the farm
means that even farm youngsters may
not know what happens on a
neighbour's farm, its difficult
bringing the realities of food
production to children. In April, a
Huron group will make a massive
attempt to educate young people in
the school system.
Nearly 1400 grade 4 and 5
students from Huron schools will be
served "A Slice of Huron" during
the week of April 13 to 16 at the
Exhibition Centre at the fair
grounds in Seaforth.
The idea, says Kevin Kale,
chairman of the event, was
borrowed from a successful
experiment in York region
where students were given an
opportunity to see where their
food came from before it got to
the supermarket. In the York
experiment, children learned where
their pizza came from: learning about
the dairy industry (cheese), grains
(crust) and fruits and vegetables
(tomatoes and toppings).
The Huron group, says Jane
Mucgge of the Clinton OMAF office,
wanted to let students know there
were other things produced in their
county so added eggs and fowl and a
"rainbow group" covering many
more specialized kinds of food
production. "A Slice of Huron"
reflected the old pizza project name
with a Huron County spin.
Students arriving at the Slice of
Huron exhibition will visit two of six
different display areas to learn more
about dairy, meats, vegetables,
grains, eggs and fowl and specialties,
from sheep and rabbits to maple
syrup and honey. The youngsters will
wear coloured ribbons to identify
which of the interest groups the
students will visit. Volunteers will
pick up their colour-coded groups
and take them to the various stations
in the building.
Students visiting the grains exhibit
will participate in rolling oats and
making flower. Centralia College will
have a display of wheat at five stages
of development, with and without
fertilizer.
In the dairy section a fibreglass
22 THE RURAL VOICE
cow and milking parlour, provided by
Surge dairy equipment, will show the
internal workings of a dairy cow and
how she is milked. There will also be
live animals on hand for the children
to see. Originally, says Kale, who
was a diary farmer himself until he
sold his herd last year, the group had
considered actually milking a cow
but felt
that
see all the areas where by-products of
the slaughtered animals are used.
Sausage making may also be
demonstrated.
In the poultry section, students
will be able to see chicks being
hatched and other aspects of
producing chickens, turkeys and
eggs.
In the fruit and vegetable section a
local grower will demonstrate
grafting of fruit trees while another
grower will be on hand to show
plants from a green house. The
Maitland Valley and Ausable-
Bayfield conservation
authorities will provide
seedling trees to be given out
to the students to plant.
The specialty section will
have, among other things, a
maple syrup demonstration.
The event is organized by
the Huron Agricultural
Awareness Committee, a
coalition that includes three
agricultural societies, OMAF,
Centralia College, the Huron
County Board of Education, the
Huron/Perth Roman Catholic
Separate School Board and the
Clinton and District Christian School.
The group first met last July after
hearing about the York success. They
wanted to provide the kind of hands-
on learning that students couldn't get
in the classroom. They decided to
expand the York program to give
information on more types of food
production.
They sought out Kale to head the
event because one of the members
knew he was interested in agriculture
in the classroom as part of his studies
in the Advanced Agricultural
Leadership Program. Kale had done a
survey of teachers and found that
many were interested in teaching
about agriculture but found it difficult
to get the teaching materials.
The group put together a program,
then mailed packages of information
to teachers in the county. Within six
weeks, much faster than they
expected, Kale says, the maximum 48
classes were booked in. Each class
pays $100 to help pay for the event.
Teachers will be provided with
activities to do before they take their
students to the exhibition, says
Muegge, including a serving of pizza
to whet their appetite to learn more
f Huron
with
several groups going through a day, it
would be too hard on a cow to milk it
so often. Volunteers will explain to
the youngsters why a real cow can't
be milked.
Visitors will have a chance to
weigh out feed to the cow so they can
get an idea of how much feed a cow
Huron
agricultural
groups plan
event to make
sure kids know
where their food
comes from
needs (the same procedure will be
done for beef cows and pigs).
The meat section will let students