Once Upon a Farm

This year our County Farm Bureau (CFB) was the lead force to create an ag display at the Children's Museum entitled “Once Upon a Farm”.  This ag display covered over 10,000 square feet and creatively represented the “farm to fork” concept exposing both urban youth and consumers to all aspects of agriculture.  The museum is located in the largest city in our state, with most residents having limited exposure to rural experiences, farm animals and crop production.  This exhibit ran from October 2014 to April 2015.  Our CFB provided sponsorship dollars and collaborative support for supplemental educational experiences during the exhibit including; daily ag lessons, farm tours, commodity samplings and much more.  This took over 18 months to create. 

Due to the Children's Museums popularity and existing relationship with community, this was a great venue to showcase ag in an urban setting.  This partnership also created a way for our CFB to gain access to this large partnership with membership benefit potential while utilizing an existing urban platform to spread the agriculture message.

Needs: Residents in this urban center are extremely removed from agriculture. Educational opportunities needed to be developed to help bridge the urban/rural gap; creating a better understanding and awareness of agriculture and how food, fuel and fiber are produced by farmers and ranchers.

Goals: (1) Develop a stronger relationship between rural and urban families. (2) Help consumers in our community gain a better understanding about where their food originates. (3) Bring awareness to the CFB and Farm Bureau brand/mission. (4) Increase membership.

Objectives: (1) Provide agriculture related learning experiences to children and adults attending the exhibit. (2) Provide existing Farm Bureau members an opportunity to experience the museum free-of-charge as a member benefit special. (3) Provide the county insurance agents with potential recruitment opportunities for membership using the new museum relationship. (4) Create the largest ag-focused event and display for children in the community and state utilizing this partnership with the museum.