‘Chocolate milk from brown cows’: SA farmer sets Americans straight
A well-known SA character is set to tackle data showing millions of Americans know little about work on the farm after the business cracked the coveted United States market.
South Australia’s George the Farmer children’s book series — written, illustrated and printed in South Australia — is about to take the United States by storm after a momentous win for owner Simone Kain.
Penola-based author Kain first created the award-winning series in 2012 with now state upper house MLC Ben Hood after she struggled to find realistic and engaging agricultural content for kids.
The business was now 100 per cent owned by Kain who created the George the Farmer character that has had an overwhelmingly positive response in educating Australian school kids on “food and fibre”.
Kangaroo Cornfield — the 14th picture book in the series — has been confirmed to be included in the United States National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix which is distributed through the National Agriculture in the Classroom (NAITCO) network.
NAITCO has a reach of more than 4.8 million students across all 50 US states to increase agricultural literacy among American school students.
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“Children characters have been proven to enhance recall, engagement and emotional connection amongst kids,” Kain said.
“George builds on this by anchoring farming and sustainability in a loveable and imaginative way that kids can relate to and learn from.”
Kain said the book series would put South Australian farming on the global stage and provide important agricultural food education for Australian and American children.
It would tackle data that included a 2017 US study identified that an estimated 17 million American adults believed chocolate milk came from brown cows.
While a 2012 Australian study found that 45 per cent of Australian year six students were unable to identify that standard lunchbox items — such as bananas and cheese — were farm grown.
“I think this is a really important step to educate kids who are future consumers about the importance of Australia in terms of our exports and what we provide to their country,” she said.
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“If they understand how their food is being produced, they’ll be able to make healthy food choices in their future.”
Kain said the release of Kangaroo Cornfield would give children a greater understanding of agricultural contributions from both Australia and the US.
“There’s a shortage in the agricultural workforce — through picture story books we can educate kids about all the different primary industries in the agriculture sector.”
The George the Farmer platform included picture story books, “paddock to plate” videos that have amassed more than one million views and music that was available on streaming platforms.
“We have free curriculum aligned resources that teachers can download from our website and allows them to tick off on their STEM subjects for kids in reception to year 4,” Kain said.
There are currently 13 George the Farmer books exploring a range of farming practices including shearing, wheat and beef cattle to honey enterprises and robotic dairy operations. In each story, George the Farmer, Dr Ruby, Jack and Lucy pitch in to come up with solutions to challenges which mirror daily farming life.
Its free teaching resources had to date helped educate 660,000 school children across Australia.
“These resources have been converted into the New Zealand curriculum, so kids in New Zealand are learning about where their food and fibre come from through Australian George the Farmer,” Kain said.
The George the Farmer brand has won numerous awards including founder Simone Kain taking out the 2017 Agrifutures Rural Women’s Award National Runner-up, NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards Rural Entrepreneur of the Year and Women in Technology Innovation Award.
Kangaroo Cornfield is set to launch in the US in late November following an Australian launch this week.
