From the Cornell Cooperative Extension:
The fourth annual New York State Agriculture Literacy Week (formerly Ag Literacy Day) has been scheduled for March 16-20, 2009, which will coincide with National Agriculture Week.
This year the program will highlight the NYS Apple Industry. Volunteers from around the county, many of whom are closely tied to the agriculture industry, will visit elementary school classrooms to read The Empire State Investigator:The Applesauce Bandit. The books will then be donated to each school library courtesy of generous donations by Genesee County Farm Bureau, local agricultural businesses, and individual donors.
Barb Sturm, coordinator from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County, said “Ag Literacy Day gives schools and industry volunteers a perfect opportunity to focus on agriculture awareness, especially in a region where agriculture provides a livelihood for so many people. We hope that by talking to students about how food gets from the farm to their plates, they’ll grow to appreciate all the people, processes and businesses contributing every single day to the industry that provides us with almost everything we eat, use and wear.”
New York Ag Literacy Week is a statewide educational effort organized by New York Agriculture in the Classroom (www.nyaged.org) with help from many agencies and organizations, including Cornell Cooperative Extension, New York Farm Bureau, and the NYS Apple Association.
For more information to become a volunteer reader or to sponsor the purchase of books, contact Barb Sturm by February 11, 2009, at Cornell Cooperative Extension at 420 East Main Street, Batavia, 343-3040, ext. 122, e-mail: bbs28@cornell.edu, or visit our website at: http://genesee.cce.cornell.edu.
