CRAIK—Students at Craik School marked Canada’s Agriculture Day Feb. 13 by taking a trip to the farm.

Students from Kindergarten to Grade 5 visited a cattle farm and a grain farm where they learned about where the food they eat comes from, how it is produced and the people who produce it.

Into its second consecutive year, Canada’s Agriculture Day, a day set aside for a national celebration of food and agriculture, is a relatively new concept in Canada.

The intention is to showcase the agricultural sector and create a closer connection with consumers about where their food comes from and the people who produce it, according to the organization Agriculture More Than Ever, an advocacy group for Canadian agriculture.

Vern Luther’s been having school kids out to his family’s cattle operation at Riskan Hope Farm south of Craik for the last three years.

He says he’s surprised that even in a rural community such as Craik, that there is a disconnect between people and the food they eat.

Besides showing children where the beef on their table comes from, he also hopes to spark an interest in agriculture as a possible career option for children who do not come from a farming background.

Going on fieldtrips to farms is a custom for school kids.

“Back when I was a kid, we went out to Ralph Schollar’s. He had sheep, goats and cows. And, he’d always seem to wrangle it that he’d have a cat that just had kittens,” Vern recalls of the fieldtrips he took when he was in school.

Although he wasn’t able to produce a litter of kittens, Vern did have some newborn calves to show the kids.

The most recent addition was born less than 18 hours before the kids arrived.

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