Michael Vilardo, 9, of Cary, will never look at a bar of soap in the same way again, now that he has been to the beef booth at the Agriculture Expo in Woodstock.
“I was surprised to hear that the cow body is used 100 percent and that none of it is wasted,” he said Tuesday morning after leaving the booth, where he learned about the many uses for cattle.
“The outside of a baseball, marshmallows, wallpaper, soap–they all have cow byproducts in them.”
Michael, a 3rd grader at Three Oaks Elementary School in Cary, is one of the nearly 4,000 McHenry County 3rd- and 4th-graders getting a crash course in agriculture this week at the expo, sponsored by the McHenry County Farm Bureau.
Visiting any of the 21 booths at the expo, kids get to talk with local experts about goats, pigs, chicks, bees, corn, soybeans and cattle.
Pupils are also shown how the equipment used in agriculture has changed over the years.
The Farm Bureau has hosted an expo every other year since 1988.
“The expo has really grown in its popularity over the years,” said Jean Schiller, education coordinator.
“Teachers are realizing the educational benefits of exposing their students to this industry, and it is our hope that the kids leave here with a greater appreciation of the agriculture industry as a whole.”
Teachers are flocking to the expo so their pupils can learn about a very important part of McHenry County culture, Schiller said.
“McHenry County is home to so many urban kids who have no idea how much they rely on the agriculture industry in their everyday lives,” she said. “Lots of kids think it’s just the meat, but in reality farmers produce so much that we utilize.
“Less than 50 percent of an animal is used for meat, and the remaining byproducts are used in countless other ways, from the clothing on our backs, to the dishes we eat off of, to the lotions and creams we put on our faces.”
Three Oaks teacher Olivia Santarelli said she has been bringing her 3rd graders to the expo for many years.
“It has been a valuable learning experience,” she said. “Cary used to be a very agricultural community and now it has grown so much.
“A lot of our students move to Cary from other areas and they have no idea that just a few years ago, Cary was a much different place.”
The most popular booths, Schiller said, tend to be those of pork producers, which feature piglets, and McDonald’s, where children play games and can win prizes.
New offerings this year include a global positioning booth, where kids can learn how farmers use technology; baby chickens; and an exhibit that explains the use of bison.
Harvard cattle farmer Kevin Schultz has been taking part in the agriculture expo for many years, and said he always enjoys seeing the looks on the kids’ faces when they find out how cattle byproducts are used.
“Everyone is learning a lot here,” he said. “Teachers are learning right along with the kids.”
