ABOVE: Patti Norman listens as Martin County Farm Bureau member, Wanda Patsche, explains the board's purpose of giving away reusable bags to shoppers at Fareway in Fairmont on Saturday afternoon while board member Rochelle Krusemark looks on. The bags are being given away in an effort to raise awareness for National Ag Month.

FAIRMONT– The local Martin County Farm Bureau has several special projects planned this month to raise ag awareness. Today, March 19 is National Ag Day.

The Martin County Farm Bureau Board is made up of a few members including Rochelle Krusemark, Layne Ebeling, Brice Munstermann, Kurt Kiehl, Wanda Patsche and Haley Ammann-Ekstrom.

While Ag Awareness month comes around every March, this year the local board wanted to do something bigger for it.

“We want to bring awareness to the county itself and started brainstorming ideas on how to spread the message to more people,” Ammann said.

“We have a good committee and we’re feeding off of each other’s ideas and passions,” Patsche said.

The Martin County Farm Bureau receives both funding from the state and some local funds for certain projects. This month, it’s focused on three projects.

First of all, the board partnered with three local grocery stores; Fareway, HyVee and the Trimont Town Center to hand out a total of 500 reusable grocery bags to shoppers.

This past Saturday, 250 were given out at Fareway. On Wednesday bags will be given out at the Trimont Town Center and on Saturday, March 23, more bags will be given out at HyVee.

“There’s no catch. If you come through, you’ll get a bag until they’re gone,” said Ammann.

The bags also contain some educational material including recipes, meat thermometers donated by Minnesota Pork and a magnet explaining how to cook pork.

“People tend to over-cook pork; you only need to cook pork to 145 degrees. It”s just a reminder for people,” Patsche said.

Another project the board is working on is setting up table tents with information on local farmers at several local restaurants including Jake’s Pizza in Fairmont, Lake Belt Bar and Grill in Ceylon and China House Cafe in Truman.

“We reached out to some farmers in Martin County so people can “meet” a farmer,” Patsche said.

The local board is also donating one book a month to elementary schools and libraries across Martin County through the American Farm Bureau.

It’s an agricultural book with a different theme each month. This month’s book is “Barn at Night,” which goes over different animals born in a barn.

“Students, educators and parents have access to ag education books, which we felt was important,” Patsche said.

She and Ammann are both involved in Minnesota Ag in the Classroom. Patsche said she found some free lesson plans to go with some of the books which will be given to teachers should they choose to use them.

When it comes down to it, the board just wants to help educate more people, and children, on the importance of agriculture.

“It’s a puzzle piece we’ve noticed is missing when you go to the classrooms. We’ll do activities with these kids and ask where their food comes from… and when you explain that someone raised their food you see a lightbulb go off for them and then the conversation grows,” Ammann said.

She said they can talk about what all comes from a dairy cow and beyond that what can all be made out of wood or cotton.

Circling back to the importance of raising ag awareness, Ammann shared a statistic from the Food and Agriculture Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, which said that by 2050, 9.75 billion people will need to be fed and 60 percent more food produced.

“How do you produce more food for a growing population when there are not more farmers?” Ammann said. “You need to get more people involved, even indirectly.”

She wants to highlight that there are so many different careers within agriculture.

“I guarantee if there’s something you’re good at, there’s a job for you in the industry,” Ammann said.

Patsche also expanded on the board’s desire to raise awareness.

“I think we (the board) understand and know the importance of connecting with the public about agriculture whether it be through children’s books, grocery bags or the tables tents– we know we are trying to make a difference to connect consumers with where their food comes from.”