Anna Davidson has her own ideas about how Indiana could grow the agriculture industry in this state. She believes it starts with educating kids about agriculture.

Davidson, Mount Vernon, placed second in the 2016 youth essay contest co-sponsored by CountryMark and Indiana Prairie Farmer. She received a $150 cash prize from CountryMark for her efforts.

The theme for this year’s contest was: "How would you grow Indiana’s agriculture industry?" Here is her essay:

AG EDUCATION MATTERS: Winning writers in the youth division of the Indiana Prairie Farmer/CountryMark essay contest discussed the need for more ag education of urban people, including kids. Ag education days like this one expose elementary students to what food production is all about.

“Indiana’s industry of agriculture is highly underrated by the children of Indiana. Many children you meet today don’t exactly understand the importance of farming, and what you have to do to make it a good ‘piece of land.’ More than 99% of Indiana’s children eat weekly and on most occasions, daily. The true question lies beneath the soil: Do these kids know how those vegetables got on their plates in the first place?

“It takes not only hard work, but it also requires farmers to have plenty of knowledge. Years ago it was incredibly more difficult to plant [crops] without the tools that we have today. Do the kids know and understand this?

“The future is steadily lying in the children’s hands. The hands-on process is also an incredibly genius idea. More and more kids are interested in learning when they can feel, touch, taste and even smell. Beyond a doubt it’s important to educate adults of our world today, but we must focus on the details and reality given to us. Children of today hardly know about how our agricultural industries work, and what they produce.

SECOND-PLACE WINNER: Anna Davidson, Mount Vernon, took second place in the youth division of the annual essay contest sponsored by CountryMark and Indiana Prairie Farmer.

“Teaching the kids of Indiana the importance of what kind of realistic work that the farmers put into the acres they do today will be the biggest growth you could give Indiana overall. Let the teachers educate the children in elementary, middle school and even high school about Indiana’s industry of agriculture. Not only is the world revolving around our crops, it revolves around the children of our society and our future in Indiana.”