Do you know where you food comes from? I have really enjoyed the several farm tours that I’ve been on -it gives me a sense of the real people behind who provides food for our nation. They’re education, caring, real people that want the best for you and their families. That’s my favorite part about Farm Food Tours – seeing and feeling the passion behind farming.
#FarmFoodTours of the past include:
Farm Tour – a one-day into to insights about where our food comes from.
Blogger Tour of Kansas – we saw several farms along a 3-day trek across Kansas.
Science Followup – we headed to Kansas State University to learn some of the science behind farming and about GMOs.
So a couple weeks ago I went on the 2.0 version of our Blogger Tour. It was a 3-day trek to the Missouri side, and our focus was on the Science behind farming, and post-production, or what comes next after the farmers.
We kicked it off with a stop at Merck Animal Health. My take-away was that we all want healthy animals. Just as you would take care of your kiddos when they’re sick, and help them with medicine to get them back to health, that’s the same way farmers feel about their animals – they want them healthy and happy.
After Merck, we stopped by Renee Kelly’s Harvest, a farm-to-table restaurant that is amazing, and even in an old castle 😉
Our next stop was the most-anticipated on our tour, at Monsanto. They’re a seed production company that produces regular seeds along with gmo seeds for farmers.
My take-away was that GMO seeds aren’t as modified as you think – just as farmers for centuries used to cross-breed plants to isolate the best traits (like drought-resistant, etc), the have researched ways to pull that trait out genetically. The image below is eye-opening – the plant on the right is a gmo, with a single modified gene. It allows soyboy production to happen where insects were devastating crops. (And without having to spray pesticides several times each season).
The research behind all they do is cutting edge and they’re even developed their own machines and processes.
Next up we visited a family-owned pig farm – it was interesting to see that a large operation/corporation was still family owned and managed.
On our way home we stopped by Central Missouri Meat and Packaging – it was my least-anticipated stop, but it ended up being my favorite. It was great to hear the passion which with they had for what they do. They care about the animals and giving you an amazing quality product. I wish I lived close enough, I would buy all my meat from them!
I really wish each of you could go on a Farm Food Tour – check around in your area, see if you can come meet a farmer. It’s great to know where your food is coming from and who is behind that food production! I hope you caught some of us on Periscope as we did some live video throughout our 3 day tour!
