Farm animals aren’t a usual fixture in Sangha Hall. ADVERTISING Farm animals aren’t a usual fixture in Sangha Hall. But on Friday, the nasally squeal of piglets was unmistakable thanks to Annabel and Pluto, a pair of month-old swine nosing
Farm animals aren’t a usual fixture in Sangha Hall.
But on Friday, the nasally squeal of piglets was unmistakable thanks to Annabel and Pluto, a pair of month-old swine nosing for wood chips.
“They don’t seem to like to be petted,” 8-year-old Bradson Rideout concluded while inspecting the pair up close. “And they fight each other over things.”
The piglets — though noisy and boisterous — were invited inside the Hilo meeting hall to show Bradson and his peers where their food comes from.
A couple of feet away, a pair of working dogs — used for herding, service and hounding — were getting lots of attention. And at a table adjacent to all the animals, students huddled over lab equipment extracting DNA from fruit.
The gathering was part of AGventure, a first-year 4-H program designed to expose Big Island youth to agriculture opportunities in the state. About 250 fourth-graders from schools throughout East Hawaii participated in Friday’s event, which also included lessons in hydroponics and invasive species, among other things.
It was the second daylong AGventure event of the school year. The first took place in early September in Waimea.
Both were funded with grants from the Hawaii County Agricultural Advisory Commission and Hawaii County Research and Development, said Becky Settlage, county extension agent and event organizer.
“With agriculture, we want to ensure its future,” Settlage said. “Without ag, we don’t have food to eat, we don’t have clothes because a lot of different things come from animals. So, we just want to make sure the students understand agriculture is all around them. And, of course, here in Hawaii, there’s a lot of agriculture.”
Fourth-graders were targeted because they’re at an age when “they don’t really know what they want to do when they grow up,” Settlage said. Organizers wanted to “excite students,” she added, and educate them about ag careers of the future.
For example, pigs “are an industry that’s starting to come back in the state,” said Michael DuPonte, a county extension agent helping lead the piglet and service dog station.
DuPonte said pigs are part of an overall push in the livestock industry to become more sustainable — about 90 percent of Hawaii’s food is shipped from the mainland.
“The livestock industry as a whole has a lot of potential to come back here,” DuPonte said. “The pigs will be the first to take off. … So, the ultimate goal is we want to educate the kids.”
Laila Campbell, 10, was most keen on a hands-on activity dubbed “cow wrestling.” The activity tasked Laila and her peers to correctly identify various cow breeds. Laila said she fondly recalls seeing cows up close on the mainland while visiting her grandmother and enjoyed learning about them again.
“We get to talk about the cows, and it’s fun,” she said. “You get to learn a lot, and it helps your memory.”
Organizers want to continue the AGventure program next year, contingent on grant funding, Settlage said. A combined 500 students attended this year’s events, she said, and she’d like to reach even more in the future.
“(Agriculture) is important to Hawaii’s sustainability,” Settlage said. “And it’s really important to make sure these kids understand that.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
