Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Earl “Buddy” Hance was the guest reader at Sunderland Elementary School (SES) Friday, March 23. Hance read “Seed, Soil Sun: Earth’s Recipe for Food” to Karen Perise’s kindergarten class and “Clarabelle-Making Milk and So Much More” to Susan Morrow’s first-grade class. The secretary’s visit to SES was part of the second annual Ag Literacy Campaign, launched by the Maryland Agriculture Education Foundation. According to a press release from the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA), the campaign calls on representatives of Maryland’s agriculture industry to visit elementary school classrooms statewide, read a selected book and talk to students about the importance of farming.
The visit was also part of the O’Malley Administration’s initiative, in partnership with the Maryland State Education Association, the Maryland Library Association and Maryland Association of School Librarians to encourage educators, parents and children to read 30 minutes a day for 30 days as part of a “Read 30 for 30” them. Hance selected the two books he read to the children.
“It all begins with a little seed,” Hance told the kindergarteners. After reading the book, the secretary and aide Julie Oberg passed out seed samples to the students. The samples included watermelon and tomato seeds.
The students also learned that farmers value the presence of earthworms in the soil where crops are planted, primarily because of the nutrients the creatures leave. “They are not just for fishing,” Hance quipped. “As farmers, we love to see earthworms.”
The book read to first-graders chronicled the life of a large Holstein cow in Wisconsin. The bovine’s prodigious outtake of milk was enough to supply several families with years of dairy products, including milk, butter and ice cream. Hance also pointed out that the cow’s manure and methane helped generate electricity, enough to keep the lights on in 400 homes in one night.
“She’s an amazing factory,” said Hance of Clarabelle the cow.
Hance, whose family’s farm is in Port Republic, said while walking from the kindergarten class to the first-grade room that farmers in Maryland and all across America are concerned about the possible negative impact the mild winter could have on crops this summer. Right now, the biggest concern is on the yield of fruit trees. The possibility of an early spring frost also weighs heavy on Maryland farmers’ minds this year.
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