MONTICELLO, Wisconsin (WXOW) As children grow up generations removed from the agriculture industry, it's increasingly difficult for them to understand where their food comes from.
In this segment of Wisconsin Dairy News, author Angie Edge came up with a creative way to explain it to youngsters.
This group of kindergarteners is learning a valuable lesson about where their food comes from- all thanks to the creative mind of author Angie Edge, who also works for Wisconsin Dairy Council.
Angie Edge, Author, Wisconsin Dairy Council says, "Cows make white milk for you and me to drink. Wouldn't it be fun if cows' milk was pink? Do you think the jersey cow here gives white milk or chocolate? Raise your hand if you think it's chocolate."
Perhaps not surprisingly, most of these children do believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
"I think in almost every classroom lesson they see the picture of the brown cow and the color on the cover and they always think the brown cow gives chocolate milk," says Edge.
But that's about to change if Angie Edge has her way. Her new book, A Farm of Many Colors, is helping kids learn all about farms and food.
Edge says, "The Wisconsin Dairy Council does a lot of classroom lessons and we couldn't find a book that really worked for our kindergarten and first grade lessons, and we had looked for several years; and basically one night I just went home and I thought I'd try it myself, and the words came together really quite easily."
Filled with colorful pages and great information for youngsters, the book is proving to be quite educational.
Ella- Kindergartener at Monticello Elementary School says, "We learned about dairy foods and that we should eat…eat milk, um yogurt, and drink milk and eat cheese!"
Kindergartener Ben says, "I learned about cows from the dairy!"
And the book not only teaches kids the colors found on a farm, but all the different colors of healthy foods they can eat!
"And when you get to some of the foods like the blues and the purples, they maybe can't think of a purple food or a blue food, but really encouraging them to eat all of the different colors of the rainbow, from different colors of cheese, to fruits and vegetables and whole grains," says Edge.
And that's Wisconsin Dairy News.
Wisconsin's farms and agricultural businesses generate more than $59 billion in economic contributions into our economy every year and provide jobs for almost 354,000 people.
