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IV Press Article 2-7-20 ### Educators learn about Valley’s ag scene for their own teachings

Jack Vessey - Vessey Organic Farms - Imperial County California.jpg

IMPERIAL COUNTY – The inaugural IV Ag Tours for Teachers event on Thursday showed local educators how they could incorporate Imperial Valley’s strong agricultural industry in their classrooms.

The event took a group of fifteen educators, which was made up of fifth- to twelfth-grade teachers and counselors, through different ag-related sites in the Valley’s south end.

The event was hosted by Farm Smart, a program under the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.

While some educators in the group taught something related to agriculture, others in the group, such as math, music and science teachers, did not.

Nonetheless, the event’s target audience was educators who don’t have tons of experience on the subject of ag, Farm Smart’s program manager Stacy Amparano explained.

“This was to inspire the teachers to learn about our local agriculture and how impactful it is in our economy,” Amparano said. “And just get them inspired to incorporate agriculture into their classrooms through any subject that they teach.”

The 15 educators hopped on a charter bus Thursday morning from Farm Smart’s headquarters, located at the Desert Research and Extension Center on Holton Road here.

For their first stop, the group met up with Imperial Irrigation District’s Vince Brooke, who spoke about his water conservation efforts and the engineering that goes into the Valley’s water system.

The bus then went to El Toro Land and Cattle, a livestock ranch in Heber, to gain some knowledge on the Valley’s number one commodity, cattle.

The educators were given a tour of the facility and learned about the ranch’s operations, feed mill and, of course, cattle.


Jack Vessey - Vessey Organic Farms - Imperial County California - 100 Years of Farming.jpg

The group then traveled to El Toro Export, an exporter in El Centro, and learned about the export side of the business.

Guided by El Toro Export’s President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Plourd, the group was able to visit the on-site hay press and how the business goes about compacting hay bales and ships them overseas.

The next stop for the group was a cabbage field in Holtville belonging to Vessey and Company, Inc.

The company’s president, Jack Vessey, spoke about his operations and how he has to comply with today’s labor and food safety laws.

The company then provided lunch to the group at Vessey’s office in Holtville. The group ended the day with a visit to Vegcool in Holtville, a cooling shed which cools vegetables before they’re shipped out.

It was the first Ag Tours for Teachers event that Farm Smart has ever hosted. If the program sees an interest from other local educators, then it will plan to host another tour sometime in the future, Amparano explained

Staff Writer Vincent Osuna can be reached at vosuna@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3442.

https://www.ivpressonline.com/news/local/educators-learn-about-valley-s-ag-scene-for-their-own/article_508687ac-4a2d-11ea-bae6-cba406dfc10e.html