June 24, 2009
I Have Arrived!
I have made it to St. Louis and have experienced some of my first National Ag in the Classroom Conference. I found my way here fine. That was one of my biggest fears as I those of you who know me know I don’t like traffic. The Millennium Hotel is going to be my home for the next few days. The hotel is located on the river between the Arch and Busch Stadium. I was hoping for a view of one of these two, but instead have a view of the Interstate.
Upon arriving I attended the Newcomers meeting. We were briefed on the conference events and given some reminders. There are 581 people here for the conference. After the conference we went to the Interest Approach Fair which was themed after The Pike at the 1904 World’s Fair. Here there were 40 make and takes like an Earth Bracelet, Thankful Turkey, and Garden in a Glove.
After going up to the room to unload my loot (and boy did we get a lot of it) I went to a Roundtable discussion where I learned about some Tennessee curriculum on livestock. Here I was able to taste (yes taste!) Milo packing peanuts. They are similar to the biodegrable corn peanuts. They taste like Cheetos without the cheese. I will bring some home with me in case you want to try one!
I am now sitting in the exhibit area where Dell has sponsored a Cyber Cafe. I am not sure if I will be able to utilize Internet free of charge from my room. So if I have to blog from here I may not be able to blog as often (only 4 computers here) and you will have to wait to see pictures upon my return.
Shortly we will be enjoying supper with a salute to The Hill (Italian) and hearing from a few of our sponsors speak. The morning will begin at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast and then boarding the busses for the traveling tours.
I am learning a lot already and looking forward to bringing these ideas back and sharing them with everyone.
June 24, 2009
National Ag in the Classroom Conference – Day 1
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Another Interest Approach Fair idea – Grasshoppers
Well, day one is now done. I have been successful at connecting to the internet from my room, so I am going to post some pictures of some of today’s events. In today’s earlier post I mentioned the Interest Approach Fair, Roundtables.
I have to say that we are not going to starve here. They are feeding us well. Tonight’s supper was a salute to The Hill. The Hill is a unique Italian neighborhood here in St. Louis. It was settled in the early 1900’s by Italian immigrants. The Hill and its residents carry on their traditions in this neighborhood – even the fireplugs are painted green, white, and red in tribute to Italiy’s tricolors. The meal consisted of many Italian dishes including pasta, breadsticks, and toasted ravioli. Toasted ravioli originated here in St. Louis at a restaurant called Angelo Oldani’s (now called Mama Campisi’s). It was an accident that turned into a great dish when an assistant dropped a ravioli in what he thought was a pot of boiling water but was oil. Mr. Oldani tried to salvage the ravioli by brushing on some grated cheese.
Also at tonight’s supper we heard from Dr. Lyndon Irwin who spoke on the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Some people on tours will be traveling to the original site of the fair tomorrow.
National Ag in the Classroom Conference – Day 2
Our fancy life vests at the river terminal.
Wow. Day 2 is done. It has been a very exhausting day. It is 10:30 p.m. so I am going to keep this somewhat short as breakfast begins at 7 in the morning.
We started the day at 6:30 a.m. by having a great breakfast here at the hotel. It was a hot day so we loaded up with water and hit the road for our traveling tours. My tour had 44 people and we began the day at the ART Co. which is a River Terminal for ADM. After learning a little bit about the boats and what they do we got to take a tour of the Ardyth Randall tow boat. It is interesting they call it a tow boat because they actually push the barges up or down the river. A tow going up the river can take up to 15 barges (due to the locks and dams) or 25 barges going South of St. Louis (there are no locks and dams south of St. Louis). One barge will hold 65 truckloads of grain or 15 rail cars. The crew that works on the boat work 30 days on and then 30 days off. They work 6 hr. shifts around the clock. The boat we toured was a 6000 hp tow that had two 3000 hp engines.
Our second stop was Hummert International. It is a commerical distributor of horticultural supplies and equipment. Their International Headquaters are in St. Louis. They have an office, 10,000 sq. ft. showroom, warehouses, and 3, 400 sq. ft. display greenhouse all under one roof. We learned about some of the current trends in horticulture and took aways some great activities to use with students.
After a brief lunch at Creve Coeur Park we headed to our third stop at the Monsanto Chesterfield Village Research Center. How cool!!! It was so neat to see the actual research going on there to help develop new seed varieties that help increase yield, resist pests, and even provide more nutritional value. Of course no pictures were allowed, so you will only see a picture of the outside of the building with the greenhouses on the top floor. Biotechnology crops were first planted in fields in 1996. Today there are 25 countries that plant biotech crops. It takes 8-10 years and approximately 100 million dollars for a new idea to go completely through the Monsanto pipeline before being released to the public.
Our final stop on the traveling tours was Stemme Farms. Warren Stemme gave us some information on his 1100 acre, four generation farm in St. Louis County. We once again boarded the bus to head back to our home away from home.
After we arrived back at the hotel we had 30 minutes to freshen up before boarding the busses again to head to Grant’s Farm. At Grant’s Farm we took a tram ride through the wildlife park at the Farm and saw Grant’s home as well as many FREE ROAMING animals such as buffalo, antelope, elk, deer, turkeys, and LOTS of geese. It was so neat because some of these animals were wandering around and were within arms reach of the tram. We then arrived at the main house area where we enjoyed a wonderful meal and got to sit and chat about our tours with others in the group. We also got to wander around the stables and get our picture taken with Max (a Clydesdale who was in one of the Budweiser commericals). After nightfall it finally cooled off and we boarded the busses to head back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we have State Breakfasts where you can sit at another state’s table and learn about their state’s programs while eating breakfast. After that we have a full day of workshops with a free evening. Enjoy the pictures of today.
If you have e-mailed me I am sorry that I haven’t had a chance to check them. This has been a BUSY but fun conference so far.
Good night!
