Learning about agriculture is always in season

Norman Borlaug, Ph.D., “father of the Green Revolution,” was a visiting honorary doctor of science at Michigan State University. I was a recent high school graduate from the small farming town of Litchfield, Mich. Dr. Borlaug’s claims to fame included a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for developing strains of grain to help avert famine and hunger; mine, winning the state public speaking contest for the Future Farmers of America.

That’s how we met.

It was the summer of 1976. I was anticipating starting college at Lake Superior State in the fall, and competing in the national FFA speaking contest in Kansas City, Mo., in October. The topic of my speech? World hunger.

The state FFA adviser came up with the idea of me meeting Dr. Borlaug to talk about world hunger and my speech. So, I went to East Lansing and met Dr. Borlaug in a small campus office.

I wish I could tell you some of the knowledge he shared, some of the wisdom he imparted. I don’t remember.

In fact, it wasn’t until many years later I truly grasped the significance of sitting down and chatting with such a remarkable man. In the way of a self-absorbed 17-year-old, I was oblivious to the big picture, no matter how many facts I cited in my speech.

It was a missed opportunity I have often regretted.

Of course it doesn’t take a teenager to be oblivious. Having spent the last 10 years working on agricultural literacy in Alaska, it’s easy to see that children and adults alike give very little thought to where our foods from. If it’s on our table, that’s all we need to know.

But it’s not. Food doesn’t just magically appear on our tables any more than it does for people living on the edge of famine. We have the safest, cheapest food supply in the world, but taking it for granted is no way to ensure it will continue.

Even here in one of Alaska’s most bountiful areas of agricultural production, we find students who don’t know their carrots and potatoes grow under the ground, and cheese comes from cows.

In an effort to help more teachers to raise their students’ agricultural literacy, Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom presents its third annual Alaska AITC Educator Institute in Palmer Aug. 4-6. We’ll hear from experts at the Alaska Plant Materials Center and tour farms in the Butte on Tuesday, and Wednesday and Thursday we’ll use the UAF Experiment Farm as a base as we tour local farms and hear from experts in soil, nutrition, ag statistics, ag history, etc.

And it isn’t just for teachers. Others who have an outreach that can include agricultural literacy are welcome to join the fun, informative and food-filled three days of learning about Alaska agriculture.

For more details, people can visit the Alaska AITC Web site at www.agclassroom.org/ak or contact me at the numbers below. Deadline is July 30. There are fees.

If the class isn’t for you, take a trip to a local farmers market and ask questions. Grow an interest in agricultural literacy.

I didn’t win the national FFA speech competition, but I never gave up my interest in agriculture. I’d like to think it helped inspire my oldest daughter, who said as a teen she’d like to develop a new strain of rice to fight world hunger. She’s just started her second year working on her Ph.D. at Michigan State in plant breeding and genetics.

She called a few months ago to say she’d met Dr. Borlaug, now in his 90s. I don’t think the opportunity was wasted on her.

Victoria Naegele is director of Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom, a 501c3 education project of the Alaska Farm Bureau. She can be reached at akaitc@alaskafb.org or 746-2172.