AM Minnesota Farmamerica’s Jessica Rollins and Samantha Meyer

If you would like to listen to two young professionals talk about agriculture and Farmamerica click on the links below and listen to today's AM Minnesota Program! The topic was Farmamerica and my guests were Executive Director Jessica Rolllins  and Program Director Samantha Meyer. With the COVID-19 pandemic it has been very quite at Farmamerica because all the classroom tours were canceled this spring.

However, education students about agriculture past, present and future continued at Farmamerica virtually! Samantha said she and Jessica developed videos of the native prairie, 1850's settlement farm, the country schoolhouse, 1930's dairy farm, and a modern farm. Then they made the videos available for all the classes that were going to visit Farmamerica this spring.

It is not quite the same as being at Farmamerica but "you do the best that you can" given the circumstances! One benefit is that now, with the videos students from all around Minnesota can learn about agriculture. Some schools do not have the funds to bus students to Farmamerica or they are just too far away.

Jessica said with the nice weather people want to get outside. So, early in June Farmamerica will be opening for visitors. You will be able to take the self-guided tour around the 1 mile agriculture time lane or just get outside and take a walk. They will ask you to register online so they can monitor numbers for social distancing.

There are many other activities planned for Farmamerica this summer and fall. Be sure to go to their website for details on how the activities will be handled depending on the COVID-19 pandemic. You can listen to Jessica and Samantha on today's AM Minnesota program on the following links!