Not many kids grow up on the farm in Alberta anymore, so the Grain Academy and Museum is there to teach them about where food comes from.
Jim Anderson is curator of the museum and is often amazed by how little kids know.
“I had one student that I can remember, we were in the soil bin and I said… well what comes up from the soil? And his answer was "Oil," Anderson said. “So it was, you get all kinds of different responses like that.”
Anderson did grow up on a farm and for years ran prairie grain elevators. Now the museum is his passion, but he admits it’s becoming a greater challenge to keep it going because the grain handling companies that once supported the museum have been taken over by large conglomerates that are not.
One company that does help is Agrium. Cliff Hayes is with the company and says it’s important that people understand the food chain, and he likes the way the museum is hands-on.
“They take some stalks of grain, or wheat, husk them in their hands, blow out the chaff , you know and they've got some grain right in their hands of these children,” he said. “Then they take and they put it in the grinder, grind it up and its white powder. That's the same white powder that's in the flour bag in the pantry.”
For all he does to pass on the history of Alberta’s grain industry, Jim Anderson is our Inspired Albertan this week.
