 The farmers are part of an initiative called Illinois Agriculture in
the Classroom, a program sponsored by the Illinois Farm Bureau. The
mission is to teach students about agriculture products -- where
they are grown and what they are used for. The group also presents
fourth-grade teachers with free resources so they can teach students
where food comes from.
On Wednesday, a panel of "expert farmers" monitored a game show,
"Commodity Cash Challenge," to give the fourth-grade classes the
opportunity to earn learning resources for the classrooms. Two
students, Landon Lessen and Morgan Chaudoin, were chosen to
represent the classes and put cash blocks into the lettered bin that
represented the audience's answer to an agriculture question.
The categories were commodities, beef, pork, airy, corn and
soybeans.
Some questions were easy: What is a baby cow called? (No trick
question here; it's a calf). But others were more difficult for the
town-dwelling students: How many times is a cow milked each day? It
took some coaxing from the emcee and some nudging from the expert
farmers before the audience responded with the correct answer: two
times.
One farmer-cyclist, Paul Roney, from Moultrie County, explained
the parts of his bicycle and gave the students some rules to follow
when riding their bikes.
"Wearing a helmet is important," Roney told the students, "and
that is why we are giving the school several, so students can learn
how to wear them. They make riding much safer.
"I also have a reflector behind my seat that helps people see me
on the road," Roney continued. "Mine has a battery, but you can use
any kind of reflector, as long as it can be seen from behind."
He also pointed out the importance of traveling in the same
direction as traffic, and not riding in and out between cars.
Roney is a corn and soybean farmer, but he and his wife also
raise goats. She recently began making cheese with the goats' milk.
He told the students he has ridden bikes all his life but was a
jogger for a few years. Several years ago he decided to cycle more
seriously.
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"I ride everywhere," Roney said in an interview after the
program. "I ride to visit the neighbors and to get out and away for
awhile.
"When you jog, one or two miles and you're done," he said, "but
you can ride your bike 10, 20, 30 miles and not really think about
it. You just keep riding."
The bike-riding farmers had a kickoff dinner on Labor Day and
will spend three days riding 60 miles around central Illinois. They
will visit 30 schools and speak to almost 5,000 students. Groups are
created from farmers as they are free to travel. Some cycling groups
number 50-75, and there are 30- and 100-mile circuits, in three
different routes.
Meals and lodging are provided. Local farm bureaus assist in
coordinating the cyclists' accommodations in the area where they
visit. The Logan County Farm Bureau was instrumental in making plans
and arrangements for the bicycling farmers and their support team.
Lunch was at Sorrento's in downtown Lincoln. And then, they were
peddling down the road.
[By MARLA BLAIR]
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