The College of Agriculture's goal for Ag Week was to connect with the rest of campus.
“We have a lot of connections within the College of Agriculture,” said Caleb Hicks, School’s Council vice president for the College of Agriculture. “Our theme for Ag Week ... is connect, so we wanted to do an event that would connect with the rest of campus, and that way we can connect with students who may not know a lot about agriculture.”
The College of Agriculture School’s Council and its senator wanted to connect students with where their food comes from.
"With ag advocacy, we really are advocates for agriculture and our local and corporate farmers ranging from small to large," said College of Agriculture Sen. David Beal. "We want to educate just your average student where your food is coming from, who's doing it [and] what the industry looks like as a whole."
The largest event of the week was Farmfest, which the College of Agriculture co-hosted with the University Program Council.
“We coordinated with UPC and Tiger Dining toward the end of last semester to start trying to figure out ways and ideas to make this a better event and make it big and as huge as possible,” Hicks said.
Through Farmfest, the College of Agriculture showcased all of its organizations and what they can offer students around campus, not solely agriculture students.
“We started coordinating with folks in the College of Ag,” Hicks said. “Every single department within the College of Ag is represented here today in some form or fashion.”
The student organization table run by the Cattlemen and Cattlewomen provided food during the event and remained surrounded by students at Farmfest.
“Our purpose is to get kids involved in the beef industry and advocate for our industry,” said Taylor Evens, junior in agricultural business and economics and Ag Council representative for the Collegiate Cattlemen and Cattlewomen association. “Today, we're out here at Farmfest cooking hamburger sliders.”
The beef used at Farmfest and for their catering business is from the meat lab at Auburn, meaning it was also locally sourced and produced.
“Collegiate Cattlemen and Cattlewomen Association we source all of our meat products through the AU meats lab,” Evens said. “We have a great working relationship with the folks over there and they help us with most of our meat needs.”
Meat wasn’t the only sought-after food at Farmfest. Aubie Dots were the next highest trafficked table. Aubie Dots were provided by the Food Science Club.
“It’s a fun creative way to do something a little different with food,” said Shelli Laskowitz, graduate student in food science and vice president of the Food Science Club. “This isn’t all that Food Science does … but this is definitely a fun way to get our name out there.”
Aubie Dots contain four main ingredients and are prepared before each event.
“We prepare a mixture of milk, sugar and heavy cream and we put food coloring in it,” Laskowitz said as she slowly poured the milk and cream mix into the liquid nitrogen. “And we slowly drip it into liquid nitrogen, filter it out and it’s in the form of little dots.”
This isn’t the first time the Food Science club has made their Aubie Dots, in fact, they are usually present at every big College of Agriculture event from new faculty luncheons to Farmfest.
Block and Bridle Club attracted students, their large petting zoo drawing in crowds.
“We did this event today to educate the campus about agriculture and what agriculture really is,” said Jordan Farrell, senior in animal science and president of Block and Bridle. “Block and Bridle is in charge of the petting zoo. All these animals come from either the vet school, the beef unit or the horse unit on campus, and so they are all University-owned animals.”
From llamas and alpacas to horses and sheep, Block and Bridle not only allowed students to interact with the animals but aimed to teach them the information they may not know.
Farmfest was just one of five events held during Ag Week. The College of Agriculture’s School’s Council hosted a discussion, luncheon and a service project to benefit campus kitchens.
“We’ve done an ag advocacy luncheon, which focused on GE, genetically engineered, crops and the importance of those,” Hicks said. “And how to better communicate the importance of those with people who may not know about them.”
On Tuesday, The College of Agriculture hosted a reverse career fair where all the College of Agriculture clubs set up booths and employers came around to them.
“We had a picnic on Ag Hill [on Wednesday], which was a huge success,” Hicks said.
To wrap up the week the College of Agriculture hosted a peanut butter and jelly party where they made 2,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to donate to Campus Kitchens and other places that tackle food insecurity around Auburn.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
