USDA takes farm animals to Lovin Elementary School in effort to bring agricultural education to students
The agency reached more than 1,600 students between the three schools.
By Curt Yeomans
Gwinnett
Oct 8, 2022
Excerpt:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Georgia office brought the USDA’s Urban Agriculture Initiative to the school on Wednesday to give students a chance to see, touch and learn about farm animals in a hands-on setting.
The Urban Agriculture Initiative is an effort to teach students who live in areas where farms are less common, especially in metropolitan areas, about the importance of agriculture in the U.S.
“One thing that is clear is that agriculture is the top industry in the state of Georgia, and we’ve got to ensure that we’ve got a pathway for all of our young people to play a role in agriculture,” USDA Georgia Farm Service Agency Executive Director Arthur Tripp said. “So we are here in hopes of planting a seed, literally, in our young people that they will be able to experience agriculture not just in a textbook, but experience it in real life.”
Lovin is one of three schools in metro Atlanta that the USDA’s Georgia office chose to visit as part of a pilot-like stage to test the Urban Agriculture Initiative. The others were in Fulton County.
