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.
