ISU extension brings ag to classrooms

WASHINGTON — In an endeavor to teach kids about where their food comes from, Diane Rinner coordinates a program through the Iowa State Extension office in Washington County that brings her to 60 classrooms nearly every month.

“Kids need to know where their food is coming from,” Rinner said. “The average American school-aged child is three generations removed from the farm, and they have no idea what it takes to raise the food, the fuel and the fiber for us to be able to live.”

Rinner said that exposure to agriculture — for over 1,000 Pre-K through fourth-graders every month — was essential amid a growing world.

“They’re estimating that the world population is going to be over 9 billion by 2050,” she said. “Farmers and ranchers are going to have to figure out how to increase their food production to feed the world population like that. So it’s going to fall on children of that age: it’s only 30 years away … so it’s very important for kids to have that understanding.”

A former schoolteacher herself, Rinner said the endeavor was something of a passion project.

“When this position became open at the extension office I jumped at it because my husband and I farm,” she said. “We just wanted to get across to people, starting with children, where their food comes from and that farmers are doing their part in trying to be conservationists as well as feeding the world.”

The program is especially close to home for Rinner personally, a self-proclaimed “big city girl” from Davenport who now lives and works on a turkey farm with her husband.

“I needed to have more time on the farm, and so this position came open which uses my teaching and my passion for agriculture, and I knew this was the perfect fit,” she said. “I applied and was accepted and I absolutely love it.”

Rinner said students’ lack of knowledge, even in a farm-filled community like Washington County, was sometimes shocking.

“What surprises me is how kids sometimes don’t have an understanding that farmers and ranchers produce their food,” she said. “They have an understanding that they go to the grocery store, they get their food and that’s where it comes from. They believe that the grocery store makes that food, and it’s not.”

The classes are taught much like any other, with Rinner bringing in hands-on lesson plans that meet state social studies standards along with all the supplies at no charge to the school districts.

“This month, students are learning about the different types of corn,” she said. “They’re actually getting to touch the corn, whether it’s field corn, decorative corn, or popcorn … you’d be surprised how many kiddos didn’t really realize there were different types of corn.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com