Programs that bring agriculture to the classroom help consumers understand the origins of food and fiber.

Doug Mertens is passionate about farming. In farming, he sees a great tradition and the backbone of a nation. Yet in today's increasingly urban society, Mertens also sees that fewer people understand, much less have an appreciation for agriculture. That's why Mertens volunteers to visit classrooms. He knows that youth from non-farming families will never have an intimate knowledge of agriculture. He just wants them to know where corn flakes come from.

Just a brief conversation with Mertens reveals that he isn't seeking any compensation or reward from taking time to visit school kids. Mertens gets in classrooms because of a long-standing love for agriculture.

"I was born on a farm," he said. "Agriculture is my life. I'm 43 now, and according to the update I got from Social Security, I've got 24 more years before I can retire and draw Social Security. I would like to stay in agriculture. But I think if we don't step up, agriculture as we know it won't exist."

Currently a field sales manager for NK Seeds, Mertens has helped promote the classroom approach throughout his company and others that are part of the Mid America CropLife Association, a non-profit consortium of manufacturers, distributors and allied industry of crop protection products. The majority of Mertens' classroom time has been on behalf of the association's CropLife Ambassador Network. And he recently gave a presentation through the Libby, Mont., based Provider Pals network.

Mertens said it was practical experience that first drew his attention to the need for educating children about agriculture. The epiphany came when his son Zach started day care. The day care offered a lesson on agriculture, but one that could use an update.

"To them, all pigs are pink, all barns are red and all farmers have big overalls and a piece of straw hanging out of their mouth," said Mertens. "At that time I was working at MFA at the Columbia [Mo.] retail location, and because agriculture is my life, I asked if I could talk to the kids about what agriculture truly was. The day care was receptive, and that's how I got started."

That was 11 years ago. Since then Mertens has talked to thousands of kids and gotten involved with a couple of organizations that promote teaching children about farming and natural resources.

The CropLife Ambassador Network shows children the difference between agriculture of the past and today's modern technique. It covers ideas such as the efficiency of today's farmer and the limited amount of farm ground available to an increasing population.

"We have to remind people that crop protection is an important part of the process," said Mertens. "We talk about abundant food and the relationship that has with our food costs compared to, say, Europe or Japan," he said.

One way Mertens has found to better relate the necessity of agriculture is to explain how the industry affects the children's daily routine.

"I take a box with a bunch of products from toothpaste to towels to food. I walk them through the day-try to tell them how many things they use in a day that are produced by agriculture. The funny thing is when we get to breakfast. I say, 'I have a box of corn flakes, what are they made from?' There's no answer. So I say, 'I have a box of corn flakes, what are they made out of?' It takes several guesses usually."

Mertens said that children who have been exposed to similar programs are much quicker to relate the food they eat to agriculture and farmers if asked such questions.

Aside from not understanding where food comes from, kids have a certain preconception of farmers. It is out of date with today's reality, largely because the population that is in direct contact with farming has taken a precipitous fall.

Just the attrition from farms in the past 40 years is significant, Mertens pointed out. Things were good in the 1970s but took a turn with the crisis in the 80s and the accelerated consolidation in the 90s. "Now it's the 2000s. A lot of people have left the farm and we haven't replaced that knowledge base kids got growing up. Ask a kid where that soccer ball came from. If they don't know where it's from, they can have no appreciation of what it took to make it. If nobody appreciates what we do, we're not important. And if we're not important, pretty soon they don't need us and they legislate us out of business.

"Today, the only way you understand agriculture is if you are directly involved in it, otherwise it is media perception," said Mertens.

"I was at Blue Springs [Mo.] to give a talk about the career opportunities in agriculture. When you go into an urban setting like that and ask the kids to describe a farmer, they'll tell you, 'Bib overalls, a straw hat and a piece of straw hanging from his mouth.'" Mertens added.

"But this time, I had with me a young woman who is studying biochemistry in college. She was a freshman; she comes from a farm down near Springfield. So when the kids gave their stereotype description, this 19-year-old college student, dressed like a college student, says, 'I'm a farmer.' For the kids, that's an eye-opening experience," he said.

Opening youngsters' eyes to the necessity of mining is what brought Tim Woodward of Boone Quarries, Columbia, Mo., into the classroom. After presenting alongside Mertens at a Columbia grade school, Woodward explained his approach.

"What I try to get across is how dependent we are on agriculture and mining. I lead off with some [video] tape on explosives to get them excited. Then the questions flow. But I talk about everything in the classroom that is made from mined products. If we eliminate the logging and mineral products in the classroom, they're sitting in the grass," he said.

Vying for time in front of society's children brings with it the delicate matter of probity and politics. There are those who will call efforts such as Provider Pals and the CropLife Ambassador Network an indoctrination of our youth.

For Woodward, the route to address such concerns begins with current perception. Asked what he thought was the public's outlook on mining, Woodward said that by and large it is that mining rapes and pillages the landscape. That's a perception that has been fomented over time by an organized and well-funded environmental movement.

"Our quarries are around town," he said, "So we have an open-door policy about our operations. We deal with the kind of complaints generated from neighborhood associations. As far as the classroom, it would surprise me if I went in and [a student] didn't ask me an environmental question that has already been planted and set root. About 20 years ago, I started to realize that we need to get into the schools, not peddling anything fictitious, but explaining the fact that if we didn't have mining we'd be sitting around the campfire," he said.

Through their experience with programs like Provider Pals and the CropLife Ambassador Network, both Woodward and Mertens have come to wholeheartedly advocate spending time with kids. Both said there is no need to worry about presentation skills or qualifications.

"I would tell anyone in any field that it is self-rewarding to take an hour of their time to go to a scout group or a classroom with the opportunity to explain what they do. The kids are sponges. You get them asking questions and all you have to do is tell them about what you do. They'll hear more than you think," said Woodward.

For Mertens, who said if he could make a living at it, he'd be talking about agriculture in the classroom every day, it comes down to the two loves of his life, agriculture and kids.

"I love talking to kids. I love agriculture. Put the two together and it doesn't get any better. You see things click. You see the lightbulbs come on."

For more information or to get involved go to www.providerpals.com and www.ambassador.maca.org.

Who knows where our food come from?

Living in a predominately rural area in the Midwest, food is grown all around me. Just being near fields of hay and corn is closer than most people get to crops. The connection between land and food has been lost among those who see more fields of asphalt than fields of grain. Those of us who understand the connection have a responsibility to keep the story of production agriculture alive.

The story is alive and well at Disney World's EPCOT theme park. There, you can find an interactive exhibit called the "Great American Pizza Game" that teaches where our food is produced.

This is where my family recently found themselves on our vacation-face to face with a large projection screen of the United States. Along with a dozen strangers, we were split into two teams and had to answer where the toppings for a pizza come from. It was a matching game of sorts similar to the card game Fish. The team with the most answers ended up with a virtual pizza topped with the works.

Considering the "wow" factor is not as high as some of Disney's big-name rides, the game is enjoyable and the EPCOT staff does a good job keeping it lively. And, the Great American Pizza Game was still an eye-opener for this Midwesterner. As the game progressed, it became clear people really don't know where their food is grown. Someone-on the other team of course-selected New Jersey as a big soybean producing state. No way. But yours truly did not know it is an important state in broccoli production. The larger question is who would want broccoli on their pizza? Everyone in the group knew apples come from Washington state, but no one selected Michigan. Most people think of milk production in Wisconsin and Minnesota, but joining those among the 10 top milk producing states are California, Texas and New Mexico.