Learning About State's Growth Industry

Teams of farmers and other agriculture workers visited several St. Mary's County schools last week to talk to students about where their food comes from and to attempt to correct some stereotypes.

Armed with fresh produce, high-tech tractors, hay bales and some cute goats, the farmers explained that food does not magically appear in supermarkets and that it's up to the younger generation to realize the importance of supporting local farms. They also encouraged students to consider jobs in agriculture.

"Farmers are some of the smartest people you'll ever meet," Scotland farmer Donnie Tennyson told a group of students at Esperanza Middle School in California on Thursday.

"Nowadays, it's one of the most technical jobs. I have to know about world politics . . . watch the stock market, know chemistry, make calculations," he said.

The events were part of Homegrown School Lunch Week, a new initiative to help schoolchildren across the state appreciate local farmers and what they grow. Lunches at many schools featured locally grown watermelon, yellow squash, corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. In St. Mary's, food service employees purchased produce for meals at an auction in Loveville.

"That's about as fresh as you can get," said Mike Jones, supervisor of food and nutrition services for St. Mary's schools.

The farm-to-school program was created during the last legislative session to honor Jane Lawton, 63, a Maryland House of Delegates member from Montgomery County who died in November. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jamie Raskin, (D-Montgomery) is called the Jane Lawton Farm to School Program and was signed into law by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) in May.

In addition to incorporating Maryland produce into school lunches, the program teaches children about the state's agricultural heritage. In St. Mary's, local farmers are speaking at four schools.

At Esperanza Middle School, Tennyson told students that his tractor is equipped with a Global Positioning System to make sure, for example, that crops are planted in straight rows. Tennyson showed the students a dried ear of corn and explained how a combine can strip the kernels off "in a snap of a finger."

Outside the school, students sat on hay bales and learned about farm animals from Donna Sasscer, a county agriculture specialist who has a farm in Park Hall. Sasscer introduced the students to a brown-and-white goat named Samantha and to a dairy calf. She told the students the calf they were petting, when grown, would have to drink two gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk.

"You don't have to be a farmer to work in the industry," Sasscer told the middle-schoolers as they watched a mother hen and her chicks peck about in a small cage. "You could be a nutritionist, a truck driver. There are lots of careers that are farm-related."

As part of the farm-to-school initiative, the state agriculture department has a Web site, http://www.marylandfarmtoschool.org, which has information on where local produce can be purchased, sample lunch menus and tips for nutritious lunches.

Sue duPont, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, said that although Maryland is best known for its blue crabs, its farmers on the Eastern Shore and elsewhere grow a variety of produce, including strawberries, watermelon and Silver Queen corn.

"We're seeing a big uptick in interest in buying local foods,'' duPont said. "People want to know where their food is grown, and there's also a lot of talk about reducing carbon footprints.''