By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent PRINCETON, Ky. — In a state that is largely rural, with farms dotting the countryside, many children in Kentucky still have a limited knowledge of agriculture.
Thanks to a book donation made by the Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board (KSPB) however, state public libraries have a couple of new books aimed at bringing ag education to more of those children. The board donated the books to every public library in the state as part of its continual outreach to teach Kentucky’s youth more about agriculture, especially when it comes to the many uses of soybeans.
The books, entitled Awesome Agriculture: Soybeans an A-to-Z Book and Soybeans in the Story of Agriculture, show through words and pictures the many uses of soybeans and “explores production, processing, distribution, marketing and consumerism,” according to information from the KSPB.
Jack Trumbo, KSPB chair and a soybean farmer from Simpsonville, said it’s important to take advantage of opportunities to teach children about the legacy of soybean production.
“KSPB is proud to be able to offer these new books to Kentucky public libraries. Any time we are given the opportunity to teach a child the importance of our state’s agriculture and soybean production, we must do so in order to ensure our heritage,” he said.
Nancy Petty, branch head at Marshall County Public Library, said the gift was a wonderful surprise.
“We were really glad to get them. It’s kind of an unusual subject matter. It’s not a subject you would have a lot of in the library,” she said.
“Both books are part of a series called ‘Awesome Agriculture for Children’ and they are just really cool books. Our county is still semi-rural, so there are children here that would be familiar with farming and equipment.”
Petty added even with many farm kids around, it’s good for children to know about food production.
“The more space you get between how food is produced and how food is consumed, it’s not a good thing,” she said. “If you catch the kids at the right time, they are fascinated. I think the books will be used and I’m hoping they will be appreciated by the children. I certainly appreciate them.”
Judging from the response, librarians across the state are echoing those sentiments. Jamie Vincent, spokesperson for the KSPB, said she has received many notes of thanks.
“We have received a great deal of correspondence thanking us for the books – notes and phone calls from Casey County, Wayne County, Leslie County, Russell County, Trimble County and of course, Marshall County,” she said.
The book series originated in Minnesota and both of the donated volumes were written by JoAnne Buggey, Ph.D. and Susan Anderson, education specialists at the University of Minnesota.
Barb Overlie, who serves on the Minnesota Soybean Growers Assoc. (MSGA) board as well as the American Soybean Assoc. board of directors, said the book program there has been around for a few years and has brought updated information to school libraries throughout the state.
“I’ve was in on the ground floor of this project about four or five years ago and we found that so many books the school libraries had were outdated. So, a committee got together and critiqued quite a few books, but we discovered there were no books on soybeans,” she said.
“We really couldn’t even find one at the time. Susan Anderson, who was a classroom teacher before coming to the university, decided to take it on herself to write one. She got together with Professor Buggey and they decided to write these books together.”
Overlie added that her role on the MSGA’s Consumer Education Committee has been helpful in spreading the word about the books. “We got involved with the program because we felt this was a wonderful tool to get the information out to schools. We can only go to so many personally so we have to look for avenues where we can reach more people,” she said. “We are all just getting so far removed from the farm. It used to be that our grandparents were there, now it might be that out great-grandparents were on the farm. Many kids think their food comes from the grocery store.”
Overlie hopes the book program will continue. She made note of the organization being present at the national Ag in the Classroom conference last summer, where the MSGA provided enough money to give a set of the books to every attendee.
“We’re hoping they all took the books back to their states to promote them,” she said.
“We’re so proud that Kentucky has done this. What were doing is working with all the counties to make sure they are getting this out to their school libraries and we’ll go from there to get it into the public libraries.”
As far as the KSPB is concerned, the books are just part of its educational outreach endeavors.
Its website has an entire section dedicated to soybean education and can be found at www.kysoy.org |
