Practicing Label Reading

The last 2 weeks have seen the IAITC Program across the state at various teacher and pre-service training sessions.  Last week--I was at Waubonsee Community College, St Francis University (with the ULTRA Cool reserved parking space!), Judson University, Cook County Farm Bureau, and now at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, while AITC also had presentations at Eastern Illinois.  We put a lot of miles on the Farm Bureau mini-vans!  Ooh and by the way--did you notice we have a new agintheclassroom.org website?

As we continue to provide information about our program, and agriculture in general, it is always interesting to me to watch the reactions of students (of all ages) realize something that is right before them that they've never realized.  Lately, it seems our Dairy Ag Mag is making people stop and consider. 

Our activity called "Think Your Drink" has caused students to examine their drinks---and what they are drinking.   We also typically include an activity on Nutrition we call "Digesting the World's Diet" linking the book the Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel.  When we ask students to find fascinating facts---specifically about Chad---I'm amazed they always say that the refuge family has no dairy.   Shows me how they take dairy for granted!   Lately, I've  been incorporating local milk that I purchase from the local Subway Sandwich Shop.   See Subway offers milk sold by Shamrock Farms.  No big deal.  Until you look at the expiration date---instead of an expiration date, there is a 'best by date'.    Shamrock sells milk that has been UHT pasteurized.   Shelf stable milk (needs no refrigeration until it has been opened) has been around for a while, and in many countries in Europe, you'll find it as the standard.  In Japan and Haiti, after the earthquakes, shelf stable milk provided dairy without refrigeration.  

In the US you can find UHT Milk at Subway and Panera Bread.   Even though many student have seen the milk there--they didn't realize it was different.  Some scoff at the technology.   My typical response is to ask the students to consider how quickly cell phone technology has changed, and how they just accept that change.  Why wouldn't our food supply change with technology and time?

Hopefully it leaves them with something to consider! 

This week concludes with a final day at SIU.  Keep an eye on our Facebook site, as we are having a 'like' contest.....between SIU and EIU on what we called "Wacky Wednesday"!   Keep an eye out for all those hardworking Illinois Farm Families working on the harvest!