The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture hosted more than 1,600 K-8 students from across southcentral Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex for Farm City Day to learn how agriculture touches their daily lives and brings their science and technology lessons to life outside the classroom.
“The students here today may be the ones who dream up the technology and innovation that will shape our agriculture industry and feed our families tomorrow,” Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said. “We need to feed their minds now by inspiring them to imagine what is possible. Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry needs flexible problem-solvers who can imagine new technology that will make agriculture more efficient, food safer, and our environment healthier.”
During the two-day event, elementary and middle school students are spending a day interacting with horses, rabbits, sheep, goats, and alpacas up close, as well as trying out ag drones, learning to weld farm machinery, “milking” a life-size cow simulator, and learning how worms, chemistry, and trees on farms make soil and water healthier. During the two days, students have the opportunity to meet people whose jobs on farms and in labs and businesses across the state help make their food and environment heathy, plentiful, and safe.
“It is important that our young people recognize that Pennsylvania agriculture does not begin or end on your grocery store shelf,” said Shannon Hawkins, director of culture and climate at Harrisburg Steam Academy, whose students were enthusiastically diving into activities. “It is also important that they also recognize the wealth of opportunity within the agriculture industry and Pennsylvania’s importance to our nation. We need our students to participate in the preservation and restoration of agriculture.”
