Our Farm Bureau visitors helped us learn economics.

Tuesday May 23, 2000, three people came from the Farm Bureau to talk to us about farming and how much a farmer makes when he sells his crop. They told us what kind of machinery they use when they harvest their crop. They told us that labor is the most expensive thing a farmer has to pay for because of trucking and picking the crop.
They brought food like M&M's, Cheerios, raisins, and nuts to show us the process or a farmer's crop being sent from place to place. First truckers have to take is to the processor so he can make it into something like apple sauce or apple juice then to the truckers so they can take it to the grocer then he sells it to the consumer. That is what farmers need to do in order to sell his or her crop. It terns out that a farmer looses most of the money made when he or her sells there crop.
... Trevor

May 24, 2000, Mrs. Schoedel, Mrs. Anderson and Ms. Anderson came in for a 45-minute class with Mrs. Eldridges' group. These three ladies came to talk about the importance of agriculture and how farming works. Farmers have to pay for a lot of things. Their first is Labor (workers) which is about 1/3 of their income. Then come equipment, land, tax, repair, seed, and fertilizer.
Farmers need to sell their crops to pay for these things. This is how they get their goods to market; first they have to grow the food. Then they hire a trucker to take the food directly to market or they send it to a processing plant. At the processing plant they pack the food in boxes and jars. From the processing plant the truckers take the food to Grocery stores where we usually buy our food.
During the 45-minutes our class made GORP. GORP is a mixture of peanuts, M&M's, Cheerios and raisins. The farmers poured the supplies into separate boxes. Then the truckers took the food to the processing plant. Here, they poured the different boxes into one bowl and stirred it all up. The Truckers took the bowl to the grocery store where they put the GORP in small cups and passed them out to the class. I learned more about agriculture thanks to the three ladies that came to our class.
... Katherine

http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us

Tuesday we had three ladies named Mrs. Shoedel, Mrs. Flo Anderson, and Mrs. Sherry Anderson come into our class to tell us about Economics and how they work. First of all they gave us a bag of corn and a sheet of paper to write down how money we had and to to put down the cost of the thing we bought. I had 17 pieces of corn, which was supposed to be money! After every thing I bought I ended up with six pieces of corn or six dollars! After that we were split up into five groups called farmers, truckers, processors, and grocers! I was a grocer and so was Meghan and a few other people. My group took the food the put it into cups, then after we're done we gave them to the other people. Then we ate the food, now we know how long and how much work it takes to make the food. I wish they could come into our class again, sometime!
... Amber

Thank you for coming to our classroom. I had a good time. I learned that there are a lot of different kinds of farm equipment. There are different kinds of equipment for different kinds of things like planting, picking, and grazing and now just from you I know that I can make a great snack for my family by mixing raisins, M&Ms peanuts. and Cheerios. I learned that you have to do other things than just plant. I also learned that if you plant one year and do bad you can't just give up you have to hope you can do better the next year. I learned about profit. I also learned about how the food gets from place to place. Like how it gets from the farm into a truck then the processor to the truck and then to the grocer. I think that farming is cool. I am glad that you came into our classroom. Thanks again! ...Jake

Tuesday, some ladies from the Farm Bureau came to teach us about economics and how the food you eat goes from the farm to the trucker to the processor back to the trucker then to the grocer and finally, to you, the consumer. During this activity the ladies from the Farm Bureau passed out laminated cards to all of us. I was a grocer, meaning that I had to pass the snack out to my classmates. The snack was called “G.O.R.P”. G.O.R.P stands for good old raisins and peanuts. This is one of the best ways that I've spent 45 minutes in class this school year thanks to Katy Schoedel, Sherry Anderson, and Flo Anderson, thanks! ...Tim

I learned a lot from the Farm Bureau ladies Mrs. Schoedel, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Flo Anderson. Like profit is the many left over from bills and some farmers get bad profits and good profits. If farmers have workers the farmers needs money to pay the workers so the profit for the former might be lower. But if your farming plants you need good soil like rich soil and not clay or you will have lots of water. And the weather has to be like a little rain then sun so the plants get water for food and sun for energy to make the planet grow. And a farmer needs sprays like fertilizer and other sprays so you don't have bugs and so you do have a good growing plants.
I am glad the ladies came to teach us about agriculture. I need to know that because I live on a farm and we sell produce. ...Evan