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If you eat food and
wear clothes, you are involved in agriculture – and that is what
a California group hopes to remind consumers through their
educational venture called Farmology.
Farmology, which means the study of farming, is a consumer
education program run by the Agricultural Awareness and Literacy
Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit founded by California Women for
Agriculture in January 2001. California Women for Agriculture is
the largest, all volunteer agricultural organization in
California with over 3,500 members in 22 chapters.
Denise Skidmore, of Merced, CA, is current president of the
Agricultural Awareness and Literacy Foundation Board of
Directors. Here she shares her involvement with the Farmology
effort and the goals for the program’s future.
- How did you
get involved with Farmology and why is this an important
effort to you?
I have always had a passion for sharing the critical story of
agriculture and was a founding member of Farmology. I was not
raised on a farm and was fascinated, through 4-H and FFA, by
the complex system that fulfills the most basic of our needs.
Without a secure supply of food and fiber, our nation is at
risk.
I enjoyed nine years as a Mobile Dairy Classroom Instructor
for Dairy Council of California taking a live cow and calf in
a specially designed truck and trailer to provide outdoor
assemblies to schools in LA and the Bay area and personally
spoke to more than 500,000 children.
Currently, I serve as the Director of Education & Public
Relations for Hilmar Cheese Company overseeing the Visitor
Center tour program hosting more than 15,000 students and
thousands of adults each year.
Our goal with Farmology is to focus on educating consumers
about the benefits and importance of American agriculture.
-
What are some of
the educational tools Farmology has developed?
The Farmology restaurant booklet was one of our first projects
– we figured what better place to learn about farming than
while waiting for a meal. With our partnership with California
Grown, we have distributed more than 200,000 booklets.
We are also revising our Farmology website to become a
consumer place to learn how crops and livestock are produced
and processed. We recognized that there isn’t really one place
to go to learn about farming – you have to go to each
different commodity board’s site. So our revised Farmology.com
site will bring all of that information to one place and
provide links to all of the great virtual tours that different
companies host on their sites. We plan to launch the improved
website this fall.
-
What else lies
ahead for your group?
Our biggest project is our Farmology Traveling Exhibit. If
$150,000 would ‘just fall from the sky,’ it would debut next
year at National Ag Day celebrated at the California State
Capitol and then travel to fairs, museums, farm days etc. for
the next few years.
Once the exhibit becomes reality, we expect that more than
100,000 people will experience the exhibit each year.
Our hope with this exhibit is to show the science and reason
behind many of today’s modern livestock equipment. For
example, a squeeze chute – if you look that up on the
Internet; the only place you can find out how it is used is on
PETA’s website. We [ag industries] need to be explaining our
equipment and how it is safe for both animal and rancher.
-
What kind of
feedback have you gotten from the Farmology efforts; do you
believe that you are making a difference with consumer
attitudes toward agriculture?
So far, the Farmology efforts have been well received. We are
making a difference. The Farmology booklet has been evaluated
by users and we are working on a measurement for the parents.
We will be doing user evaluation of the revised website at the
end of this year.We have built in a formal evaluation process
for the traveling exhibit to measure consumer opinions before
and after as well.
The Agriculture Awareness and Literacy Board is a group of
dedicated women, and we work hard to get our key message out –
that agriculture benefits everyone.
-
What advice do
you offer other states on developing a program like Farmology?
We need to all work together. We need messages that all
commodities (conventional and organic) endorse and promote –
such as Buy California Grown (or American grown/made); farms
and ranches provide open productive landscapes; and produce
healthy, nutritious food and fiber, flowers, forests, fuels
and pharmaceuticals all that contribute to our daily lives.
For more information
visit the group’s website at
www.farmology.com. |
