Video: 700 Third Graders Experience Farm-tastic

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – It was an educational day for almost 7 hundred third graders as they took a field trip to Oktibbeha County.

Third graders got an up close and personal look at life on the farm. They saw the animals that become the food the eat and the clothes they wear. Oktibbeha County Extension Cooperation and the Oktibbeha County Farm Bureau sponsor “farm-tastic” to show kids what agriculture is all about.

“I’m very excited, I’m one of the co-coordinators for it and this has been a dream of mine for several years that we do this to educate the kids of our county about where their food and fiber comes from,” said Julie White, County Extension Director of Oktibbeha County.

The two day event at the Mississippi Horse Park featured 5 different stations. Kids learned lessons in livestock and even forestry. At one of the stops, children dug through the dirt in search of earthworms.

“I am manning the worm dig and all the kids are coming by where we have the worms over here and kinda explaining how important the worms are. The soil and how good they are and there just digging through those and find them and put them in a bucket,” said Jake Northcutt, County Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency.

It’s a great experience for hundreds of third graders as they learn what they eat each and everyday comes from the farm.

“I think they’ve certainly gained a better understanding of where their food comes from and that you know all of the things they eat come from the farms, I was telling them that and several said, even candy, even pizza, and I said yes everything that you eat is a product of something from the farm. So I hope that what they really take home is that agriculture impacts them every single day,” said Samantha Webb, from the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.

Organizers look forward to making Farm-tastic an annual event and other counties have already signed up to participate next year.