Courtesy photo.
CENTRAL COAST — Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) and local growers are creating a series of short videos highlighting agriculture in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. In-person Farm Days tours that were to take place in September in Santa Barbara County and in November in Ventura County have been canceled due to the continuing pandemic. In their place will be “Farm Day Features,” 10-minute videos designed to give the public a behind-the-scenes look at agricultural issues facing farmers and the types of produce grown in the area.
“Farm Day Features will take viewers to some of the Central Coast’s largest and most interesting food producers,” says Mary Maranville, SEEAG founder and CEO. “Most of us drive by their fields and orchards but never think about what goes into growing the food we eat.”
The first video will feature farmers from Main Street Produce, Innovative Produce and Plantel Nurseries and will discuss food and employee safety. The second video will include growers from Western Onion, Duda Farm Fresh Foods and Innovative Produce talking about how Central Coast agriculture is marketed and shipped throughout the world. More video topics and participating growers will be announced soon.
The films will begin premiering the week of September 14 on the Farm Day websites: www.VenturaCountyFarmDay.com and www.SantaBarbaraCountyFarmDay.com
Creating the features is videographer Anthony Plascencia. The farm bureaus from Ventura and Santa Barbara County will provide the video narration.
“We also plan to host day-of virtual tours on Facebook Live with lots of Farm Day giveaways,” says Maranville. “These will take place September 19 (Santa Barbara County Farm Day) and November 7 (Ventura County Farm Day).”
Sponsors for Farm Day Features include Edwin and Jeanne Woods Foundation, Plantel Nurseries, Santa Maria Community Bank, Coastal Ag Services, TriCal and Driscoll’s (Santa Barbara County) and Farm Credit West, Good Farms and Red Blossom (Ventura County).
To learn more about Farm Day, Farm Day Features and SEEAG, go to www.SEEAG.org, Facebook www.facebook.com/SEEAG.org or contact Maranville at mary@seeag.org, 805-901-0213.
About SEEAG — Founded in 2008, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) is a nonprofit organization that aims to help young students understand the origins of their food by bridging the gap between agriculture and consumption through its agricultural education programming. SEEAG’s “The Farm Lab” program based in Ventura County teaches schoolchildren about the origins of their food and the importance of local farmland by providing schools with classroom agricultural education and free field trips to farms. Through this and other SEEAG programs including Farm Day in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, over 65,000 elementary school students and community members in Southern California have increased their understanding of the food journey. For more information, visit www.SEEAG.org or email Mary Maranville at mary@seeag.org