Posted by dreynold on March 04, 2009 | RSS Feed
Extension REA Shares Agriculture Program with Collinsville Community
Recently, the Agriculture Department of Collinsville High School’s FFA invited Judy Edmond, n urban regional Extension agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, to participate in their annual Agriculture Farm Day.
The purpose of the activity was to help students understand the importance of the agriculture system in our world and to have great appreciation and respect for farming, whether on large on a large or small scale.
“ In times like these, everyone can be affected when the farm industry suffers,” said Edmond. “It would be impossible for us to survive without agriculture or produce anything without some form or phase of agriculture.” Students realized that some of the things they take for granted would not be possible or would not exist.
The program presented was Agriculture — Sunrise to Sunset. Participants were to identify 25 items and the agriculture product they are derived from, whether eaten, worn, or used from the time they get up in the morning until retiring for bed at night. Students were asked to identify 25 items. Two examples were a washcloth and grits. The washcloth comes from cotton and the grits come from corn. Of the 667 participants, more than 50 percent were unaware of the many agriculture products they use throughout the day; and, the number of agriculture by-products involved in producing the common things they enjoy; such as a frozen pop.
"When agriculture suffers, so do we," Edmond added.
Although Collinsville is a farming community, more than half of the participants did not grow up on a farm. They had relocated there from another area of the United States or another country. They enjoy the quietness, beautiful country side, and rolling mountains, not focusing on the agricultural heritage that exist.
Source: Judy Edmond, Urban Regional Extension Agent, Family and Child Development, (256) 532-1578.
