COLUMBUS, Ohio – Franklin County is home to the Ohio State Fair and is the largest county in Ohio by population with 1.3 million people. But in a county with 789,000 people in the workforce, only 679 of them work in agriculture, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

From 1950 to 2000, Ohio lost more than 6.9 million acres of farmland, moving counties like Franklin away from agricultural roots. Today just 14.5 million acres of land is being used for agricultural purposes.

Agriculture is Ohio’s number one industry so this year – more than in years past – officials at the Ohio State Fair made it a point to educate visitors both young and old about the role that agriculture plays in their lives.

For example, this year Ohio State Fair officials targeted a younger audience with its new Little Farmers Exhibit. The outside display is designed to help teach children (particularly those ages 3-10) about various sectors of agriculture. Through hands-on and engaging activities, kids learned about both animal and crop agriculture as they traveled from station to station. Along the way, they collected items to “sell” at the farmers market station, which is the final stop where they received a prize.

Through a fun and engaging learning experience, young fairgoers were able to learn more about animal agriculture with mock animals including sheep, chickens, swine, dairy cattle and beef cattle. At each station, children learned about the array of products these animals produce and how farmers care for their livestock.

Youngsters were able to visit a station modeled after a grain bin to learn about growing some of Ohio’s top commodities, such as grains, as well as a garden where they had the opportunity to plant a seed. The goal of Little Farmers was to show children where their food and fiber comes from.

Just a short walk away from this exhibit was the Animal Care Center, which offered fairgoers an up-close look at the wonders of animal care and birth, featuring live hatching chicks, expectant pigs, playful goats, lambs, calves and a duck slide.

Emma Irvin, a pre-vet student at Ohio State University, worked at the Animal Care Center during this year’s Ohio State Fair, helping to show a variety of animal breeds to young children.

“We get to show young kids a lot of different animals, from dairy cattle to llamas to baby sheep. For many children it’s the first time to see a farm animal up close,” Irvin said. “Visitors of all ages can experience the magic of farm life in action.”

For the older crowd who might be just as naïve about farming in the Buckeye State, the Land and Living Building at this year’s fair was home to several interactive exhibits, such as a tractor simulator for planting crops. Visitors were able to see drone technology at work, and go through an interactive grocery store, allowing fairgoers to engage with agriculture without visiting a farm.

Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) volunteers staffed the Land and Living Building exhibits. OFBF member Mark Garland was surprised at the number of guests who knew little about agriculture in general.

“Ohio has 14.5 million acres of land being used for agricultural purposes, more than half the land area in the state,” Garland said. “Agriculture is Ohio’s number one industry and we need to tell the public about it. And no better place to educate the public than the county and state fairs.”

Also onsite at this year’s fair was the Ohio Proud General Store, which offered a variety of Ohio-grown and made products. Visitors could shop daily for Ohio-produced products like honey, salsa and dip mixes from Ohio Proud vendors. This year, fair officials encouraged vendors to tout their products and go into detail how those products go from the farm to the table.

Abby Bates, first vice president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, wants the people of Columbus and the entire state to know where the food on their table comes from.

“Most of our attendees don’t come from the ag side of things,” Bates said. “Our goal is to have them remember and educate them on the ag roots we came from.”

Like those at the fair, Bates and her county fair staff made it their goal to shine a light on the importance of knowing where food comes from. During this year’s Franklin County Fair, Bates encouraged urbanites to ask questions of presenters at this year’s Junior Fair shows so they could learn what goes on at the farm in preparation for their event.

“I don’t want to say it’s a dying field, but I don’t think people really realize what goes into farming and agriculture,” Bates said. “I think our biggest goal is to educate, especially the kids, because we need people to grow up and keep wanting to do things in this field.”

Shari Anderson has worked in agricultural education for 20 years. The Marysville High School agriculture teacher just finished her first term as president of the Ohio Association of Agricultural Educators. In her classrooms, Anderson sees first-hand the lack of understanding about how food gets from the farm to the table. Children lack knowledge often because their parents were not educated about agriculture.

“I think, as a society, under no fault of our own, we’ve become more removed from direct interaction with agriculture,” Anderson said. “Without this hands-on knowledge of the way farming and cattle raising works, it can be hard to access the information. Those of us in agriculture have traditionally not done a great job of telling our story because we have been so busy doing it.”