It was another enjoyable time this afternoon talking with the third-graders at the STEM school in Faribault. The students are always very excited and interested to learn about all the food they eat that has some form of corn and soybeans in it. I also grow sweet corn and peas under contract with Birds Eye Foods in Waseca. They all can relate to sweet corn on the cob and peas. Again today Brent Fuchs and Kendra Schroeder, members of the Faribault Chamber of Commerce Agri-business Committee, were there to help.

It sometimes happens that you get a difficult question that you just have to "tell it like it is." Brent was explaining about a friend of ours who was burned very badly as a small boy. Doctors at the burn unit grafted pig skin on his body to protect from him from infection. Brent explained that pig hearts are very similar to humans and pig heart valves are used to save the lives of people, too.

One student looked at me and said wouldn't the pig die then? I thought for a second and then said, the pigs were bred and raised on farms to help people. That is why they are here. Pigs get the best nutrition and environment possible to be productive. They are in climate-controlled barns to make them comfortable. They have the best health care and vaccinations to protect them from getting sick. Their job is to provide food for people to live, and to provide skin or heart valves for people to live too. Can you think of a better answer for third-graders?

More From KDHL Radio