Mara Klecker reported in today’s Omaha World-Herald that, “Nineteen Bryan High School students spent Wednesday morning posing for photos with a calf and a congressman.
“After learning about cow noseprints and chicken pecking orders, the students from Bryan’s Urban Agriculture and Natural Resources Academy heard from U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and U.S. Department of Agriculture Acting Under Secretary Ann Bartuska.
“The message: Agriculture isn’t just for farmers. It can be for city slickers, too.”
From today’s Omaha World-Herald.
Today’s article noted that, “‘It’s so important to give the public, especially our young people, the chance to see what agriculture looks like,’ Bartuska said. Though the USDA typically is thought of as a department with a rural focus, Bartuska said that notion is changing. Over the past few years, the department has developed an urban agriculture ‘toolkit’ for city dwellers who want to start growing their own food.
“‘I think there’s a growing demand for this now,’ Bartuska said. ‘It started with the local food movement and stimulated this desire for more urban farms.’
“Bacon said as a farm kid living 5 miles away from the nearest town, he wouldn’t have been able to imagine farms within city limits.”
The World-Herald article added that, “‘Fewer and fewer people are in touch with agriculture,’ [Rep. Bacon] said. ‘I think it’s really important to train folks who aren’t living on farms to appreciate agriculture and what it does.'”
