MOUNT VERNON — Ag Awareness Day is sponsored each year by the Knox County OSU Extension as a way to show elementary school students how food is produced and where it comes from.
This year’s event was organized by Andrea Daubenmier, Extension program coordinator, 4-H youth development.
“We have 23 stations [exhibits], including poultry, rabbits, farm safety, dairy, horticulture and popcorn with Allen Stockberger,” she said. “We have insects, nutrition and swine, sheep, goats and horses, among other things.
“This is important for the kids because we are now many generations away from the farm. I think it’s important that the kids get to see these things and get to learn about them because they may not have any other opportunity to do that.”
The event has been going on for quite a few years, according to Extension educator John Barker.
“We have all the kids coming out here to learn about agriculture,” he said. “This is being put on by the [Knox County] Extension office. We do this every year and we’ve done this maybe 15 or 16 years. There are some other counties that do this, but this came about from our advisory committee several years ago where we determined we needed to show the kids just how a farm works and where their farm products come from. Even though Knox County is essentially a rural county, the reality is many of these kids don’t understand agriculture, and that’s the purpose of this day. Here are several aspects of agriculture that you don’t see in your daily lives. That carton of milk doesn’t magically appear on the grocery shelf.”
