The seeds of education
Cape Breton farmers visit local schools to mark 10th annual Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month
MILLVILLE — This month some Cape Breton farmers will plant a seed of education at their local schools.
March is Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month, an event that began in Nova Scotia and is marking its 10th anniversary this year. Farmers and representatives from the agriculture sector will visit schools to help students understand the industry, as well as the importance of growing food locally.
Three Cape Breton farms are participating, holding classes at five different local schools.
Estelle Levangie, owner of Thyme for Ewe Farms, is one of them. She's doing two classes for Grade 3 students at the Centre Scolaire Étoile de L'Acadie, which is the French school her kids attend in Sydney.
“I think it's really important to make sure kids are more connected to their food," said Levangie. "I feel like watching something grow … It's the kind of experience that words can't replace.”
The Department of Agriculture has developed a mystery seed activity to accompany guest speakers where students plant a seed of an unknown plant and then watch it grow, trying to guess what it is before it's fully grown. The activity will help students understand the differences in plant growth in a classroom, and a video series will compare how plants grow in a pot versus on a farm.
Levangie said she hopes the educational visits help kids become more connected to the food they eat and to the people who produce it. Kids could also leave the programs recognizing that “it's something that they could eventually do one day themselves.”
“We should have more of these … types of activities,” said Levangie. “I feel like it should be something that should be taught in every school, for every class, like every year.
“Because it's something you do every day. Three times a day you eat food so you need to know where it comes from, how it's produced.”
Levangie said people are disconnected from the food production process and that gap in knowledge must be bridged.
She hopes this month can “plant a seed in (kids' minds) that it's something that they can do and they can turn into a career potentially.”
David Mombourquette, owner of Green Hills Farm in Albert Bridge, agrees. He is a Christmas tree farmer, something that falls under agriculture in Nova Scotia, according to Mombourquette.
He said he hasn't been approached yet to present in any classrooms but is “100 per cent” open to doing so, should any schools come forward.
Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month is “so important,” he said. “Especially when it comes to schoolkids … the stuff that me and other farmers do, you don't learn in school.”
“When you come out of school, very rarely, especially locally, would you consider farming … as a job. It's something that you're not exposed to within the current education system.”
Mombourquette said he hopes Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month can increase awareness and literacy around the different types of agriculture jobs and make young people aware that these types of jobs exist and are a potential career path for them.
“People don't look at this as a career when it absolutely is. … Exposure is needed so these months are fantastic as far as I'm concerned.”