New York
Farm Bureau

Kids, Who Grows the Food You Eat?

The question was asked to make the children think about the various roles people play in the community and the corresponding roles that the different parts of nature play as they interact. I was volunteering as a guide at a nature center. I asked the question again, "Who are some of the people that work in your town and what do they do?". When this didn’t elicit many responses I asked more pointed questions. "Who takes away your garbage?" – "the garbage man". "Who grows the food that you eat? – "Wegmans".

My ears burned for the right answer. One that let me know that all was right with the world. That kids know who the sitting President of the United States is and that they know who to thank for three square meals each day.

What happened? Why the gap of understanding? Is it because families don’t go directly to the farm to dip their milk out of the bulk tank any more? Can it be because fewer people gather the kids together in June to pick strawberries directly from the field?

I think it takes a complicated equation to reach our current level of understanding. Did you know that in 1790 approximately 90% of the population lived on farms? They grew their own food and knew all the processes by which it reached their table. Asking one of the 10% that didn’t live on a farm in 1790 where his food comes from would be like asking an Amish man that makes chairs for a living the same question. He knows because he depends on his farmer neighbor directly for his food. There isn’t anyone between farmer and consumer to muddy the water.

All of this is not to say that the middle man is evil. As a matter of fact, the average farmer today couldn't feed 129 people if he didn’t have a rigorous system of processing, storage and distribution of his products. As a rule, these "middle men" do a fantastic job of preserving, packaging and presenting farm products to the consumer in a reliable manner so as to give us in the United States the safest and most abundant food supply in the world.

Farm Bureau is actively involved with public education of agriculture and agricultural systems. County Farm Bureau's often host open farm events, put together displays explaining agricultural processes, go into the classrooms in schools to talk to children and participate with other organizations that do the same. New York Farm Bureau has a Foundation for Agricultural Education that awards grants to individuals or organizations with solid plans to do the same. They put an agricultural educational calendar in third grade classrooms each year in many schools across the state to get the word out. We hope that through our efforts at Farm Bureau that kids will know that farmers still grow the food they eat, that the middle man is important, that they have the safest and most abundant food supply in the world and that they have a role in maintaining agriculture for the future.

Please feel free to contact us at wny@nyfb.org if you’d like to locate the Western New York produce outlet nearest you or if you have an agricultural question for us.