There ought to be an App for that.....

Someone recently said to me, “Agriculture would be so much easier to understand if there were an app for it.”    Really.    It would be.   There is an app for everything.   Or so it seems.  Searching the App store for ‘Agriculture’ brings up “Ag Web News” and “Farm Futures,” and searching ‘Ag’ brings us to “AgRacer” where you compete in a driving challenge with various farm related implements.    Hmm…..what if we could explain agriculture in an App?

 

Apps are a relatively new thing---launched in July 2008 with only 500 or so. Today there are over 250,000 apps available for purchase from the Apple App Store.  There are apps for everything from Facebook to Log My Run,  there is even an App for a level (I must admit I have it!) and a fake hand warmer.   (If you think your hand is warmer it might work!)

 

But how would you develop an app for agriculture?

 

First, a couple things about Apps. They have to be engaging.  They have to involve a challenge, how do you win this or come back for more?    From an Agriculture perspective, they need to be real.  Unlike Angry Birds, I think there would be an issue with flinging pitchforks at crows!   And you wouldn’t want talking cows or pigs, and really the corn or beans shouldn’t talk either.    It is getting tougher, isn’t it?

 

Lets reflect on an App from this year in agriculture.   How would you reflect the drought?  How would you show the high winds in early August?  It sounds more like the ‘Hunger Games’ than a game! Seriously, would this make people come back for more?

 

Luckily, Ag in the Classroom just finished our ‘App’ for teachers this year.    Nearly 600 teachers across the state participated in our Summer Ag Institutes.  In a world where 60 million people pretend to be farmers in Farmville ,(http://mashable.com/2010/09/10/farmville-vs-real-farms-infographic/)  these teachers saw first hand what happens on farms around Illinois. 

 

One teacher wrote in her evaluation “All I kept thinking was, ‘there is more than farming in agriculture?’  But after our first day, I realized that this ‘farm thing’ was a bigger deal  than I gave credit for.”   We have countless stories and anecdotes about how viewing agriculture from a new perspective gave them much more insight into what a ‘real farm’ is. 

 

Another participant described her experience like this.   “I have learned that a farmer must be dedicated, hard-working and skilled in many areas.  Farmers have a deep passion for their profession and will do whatever it takes to make things work.  Perseverance is a trait that I hope I can instill in each one of my students, and I have learned that farming takes perseverance.”

 

All of that, and so much more, was learned when someone showed them what agriculture really was and they took the time to learn.   Could those emotions and experiences be channeled with an App on a 2”x3” screen?   I don’t think so.  

 

In a era of catching falling blocks, pretending to raise strawberries and where birds explode in an effort to recapture eggs, Agriculture in the Classroom has an App for agriculture.

 

Our App is our Summer Agricultural Institute, and getting teachers to visit a farm.   Pretty simple and not real flashy, but it works!  

 

 

Hungry ........for a Book???

I’m hungry……nothing unusual……..articles I’ve read say I’m probably bored, or thirst……or maybe I’ve been reading the wrong thing.

Latest on my ‘just finished reading list’in no particular order….

Born Round by Frank Bruni.  Bruni is the former restaurant critic for the New York Times.  The subtitle of the book is ‘A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite'.   If you’ve read my post about gravy--I’m in the wrong business.  This guy (a former political writer, then international correspondent, turned restaurant critic) starts by going to all the ‘starred’ restaurants in New York City.  I, on the other hand, can tell you where the best Iced Tea is on all major Interstates in Illinois.  Something is terribly wrong with this situation.  It is a great book, especially if you have food that runs in your family genes.  Like Bruni does..and I do!

 Next up, Chigger by Raymond Bial.  Bial, who has been and AITC staple for years with books like Corn Belt Harvest  and  The Super Soybean has branched out of his typical photo-documentary book and has written a positively stunning portrayal of growing up in a small town.   This book, set fictitiously in Roscoe, Indiana; could be about my childhood---except substitute Nixon for Eisenhower, and The Early Show Dialing For Dollars with Ed Kelly for the Mickey Mouse Club.  One passage struck me---even in the 1950’s, there is a difference in what Americans eat.    Luke, our main character has befriended (almost by accident) a new girl in town--nicknamed ‘Chigger’.  Luke has both parents, a stay at home mom, gets 3 square meals a day--plus regular trips to the Tastee Freeze.  ‘Chigger’ on the other hand is a latchkey kid--before there were such things, from a broken household.   Chigger becomes a fixture at Luke’s house---for many meals and treats as her mother works odd shifts and sleeps odd hours.   After a summer of dinner with Luke, Chigger invites Luke to lunch at her apartment.  

            “Isn’t this great?” Chigger remarked, digging into a bowl of canned spaghetti and tomato sauce. “Mom got it special for us.’

            “Sure is.”       

            Slipping carefully into my seat at the table, I sniffed at the off-color stuff.  At least I knew what it was, even if I was quite sure what it was made of.  Out of politeness I ate every bite, even though it tasted pretty awful ---too soft and squishy for me.  Not that we had fancy meals at our house, just the opposite, but we hardly ever ate anything out of a can, unless Mom had put it up herself.    (Chigger, By Raymond Bial, 2012,  Motes Books, page 153)

Wow--what a difference food makes to kids.  Thinking back--there was ALWAYS a difference between ‘homemade’ and ‘store bought’.   I remember my sister an I used to beg for ‘store bought cookies’ because other kids got them.  I didn’t realize how lucky I was to get ‘homemade’ more often than not.  (Might explain the not only ‘born round--but ‘remained round’ as I like my cookies!)

The final series I just finished was “The Hunger Games” Trilogy  (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins.  Although I’m not typically a reader of post-apocalyptic fiction, these books have been flying off the bookshelves of JH and HS libraries.  Plus there is a new movie about to come out.  In this series we see a world where food is power--not necessarily money.   Imagine---the people with the food have the power--what does it mean to be in power now?   How does it relate?  In these page turners, I was struck by how much I take for granted and always have---full cupboards and water from the tap.  I was left with the stunned feeling like each time I use the book “The Hungry Planet” by Pete Menzel.  What if we were to match up ‘contestants from around the world in our own ‘Hunger Games’---who knows what it is like to be truly ‘hungry’ versus ‘starving’.  

I’m certainly not starving..... or hungry……probably bored or thirsty---but living in the land of plenty, these books have reminded me of what great benefits my family and I have. I work to remind myself and my family of these gifts daily!

READ ON---and think about how hungry you really are. 

The Road Less Traveled...or...where does your gravy come from?

As part of my job with Ag in the Classroom, I travel.......a lot......in a mini van........a lot.  By a lot, I mean hundreds and hundreds of miles across Illinois.  I know the roads pretty well---I know where to take shortcuts and where gas stations that sell E-85 are, I know where you can find the freshest brewed Iced Tea--and where the cleanest restrooms are.......but this week I saw something I had never seen before.  More on that in a minute.

You see this week, I was in Monroe County (Waterloo, IL) helping with a committee meeting.  They are looking to refine their efforts with Ag in the Classroom.  I helped by being from far away.  I asked a question of what they thought was important to let students know.  Their answer basically came down to they wanted students (and ultimately adults) to know where their food came from.  This is ironic, as Monroe County (in Southwestern Illinois, 30 miles south of St Louis) is a pretty rural area.  There are a couple of school districts including Waterloo, Valmeyer and Columbia as well as some private schools.  We aren't talking a huge urban metro area.  Yet, the participants, including the students at the meeting shared stories of how their classmates don't have an understanding of what goes on in agriculture.  It was a great meeting, and I drove home. 

The next day I drove to northwestern Illinois and Carroll County.   I was in Carroll County to honor our Teacher of the Year Runner Up, Mr. Erbsen, from Eastland Grade School in Lanark.  Mr. Erbsen also teaches in a small rural district.  His students are surrounded by dairy operations and fields (currently under snow!) that will soon be planted with corn and soybeans.  In his classroom, he works to provide the vital link to show his students how agriculture impacts their lives, even if they don't live on a farm.  I presented his award at a school board meeting (held in the school cafeteria!), and I made a comment about how he works to show students where their food comes from.  It was kind of a theme this week. 

Then yesterday, Yahoo News released a story of the "Most Useless College Degrees".  Wow---here we have people in two different rural locations in Illinois---a land known for its agriculture--expressing a concern that even in rural locations--people don't know where their food comes from, and a contributor for Yahoo lists a degree in Agriculture a 'useless'?  Made me stop and wonder why? Why would someone think that? 

Then it dawned on me...and it came back to one of my roadside stops...at a gas station....that has good, freshly brewed Iced Tea, and clean restrooms, along a major Interstate in Illinois.  One night this week I saw something I'd never seen before at a gas station.   (Trust me, I've seen a lot, in my many mile!)

 A gravy dispenser.

Seriously, at this gas station you can get piping hot gravy to smother your biscuits that you warm up in the microwave. In theory, you get to to enjoy your gravy before you get back on the road.   I think my friends from North Carolina AITC would find this practice highly disturbing. 

I'm serious.  It was a dispenser, like the nacho cheese dispenser. Serving up piping hot gravy.

Is it any wonder why people don't know where their food comes from?  You can get gravy at the gas station. 

To look at me, you wouldn't think I am a food purist--but I'm telling you--there are only certain places that I will even think of eating gravy.  My fondest memories of gravy involve my grandmothers---now deceased--but let me tell you--they made gravy!  I'll eat gravy at church functions--where I know some of the folks that have been cooking it up in the back.  I don't even order biscuits and gravy at restaurants for breakfast when eating out---it seems that the last couple of times I've had them, I've been disappointed in the gravy.  I can't even fathom gravy from a gas station, from a dispenser.  In my book--that is just plain wrong. 

My wife doesn't make gravy.  Neither do I ---mine usually tastes like paste.  I think the gravy gene skipped a generation--because my daughter seems to have the knack. 

So I guess maybe I my thought is, the person that thinks a degree in Agriculture is useless, might think that gravy, from a gas station, from a dispenser is a good thing.  OR that is where gravy comes from?

On the other hand, I'll applaud the efforts of volunteers who not only want the entire population to know where their food, fiber, fuel, feed, flowers and a bunch of other 'f' words come from--they are willing to put their hard work in action.  That makes me think of last week--at the Fulton County Farm Bureau.  Fulton County, in west-central Illinois has an active AITC program.  But they need to raise money to help show students that food doesn't come from the grocery store----or the gas station.... neither does gravy!  

You see last Friday, after the snow in Central Illinois, the Fulton County AITC Committee hosted a fundraiser.  They served homemade chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans and homemade desserts.   The potatoes were peeled, boiled, drained and mashed.  They were not from a box.  Something tells me there was probably real bacon added to the seasonings of the green beans.  The Fulton County AITC Committee ran out of food after serving over 200 people on a cold night in January.  They raised some money, had some fun, made new friends.   Although they didn't serve gravy, I'll bet it would not be from a dispenser.  I'll also go on record that they could tell you 'where' the ingredients for their gravy came from. 

Hats off to the folks that think an Ag degree might really be useful, and continue to work to show others that their food and their gravy certainly doesn't come from the Gas Station.