Friday, February 5, 2021
Aglink tells ag’s
story on the road,
at the farm
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Established in 1966 as the Agribusi-
ness Council, Oregon Aglink still works
to bridge the gap between urban and rural
Oregonians.
“We are trying to bring all parts of
agriculture together and help people
not working in these spaces to under-
stand what is happening around the
state,” Aglink Executive Director Mal-
lory Phelan said. “We’re a large, diverse
board from all across the state and cover-
ing a lot of different commodities grown
in Oregon along with folks from the pro-
fessional service sector.”
One of the longest-running outreaches
of Aglink is the crop identification signs in
front of vast fields of such crops and live-
stock as red clover, radish seed and beef
cattle. In partnership with Oregon Women
for Agriculture, Oregon Aglink has placed
more than 200 signs along the state’s most
traveled highways.
Whereas crop identification signs help
travelers gain more insight into agricul-
ture, another Oregon Aglink program
actually brings students out to farms and
ranches.
The Adopt a Farmer program is where
most of the nonprofit’s fund-raising mon-
ies are applied. The program is in its 10th
year.
Adopt a Farmer matches middle
school classrooms with farms and ranches
around the state for a whole school year,
funding field trips and facilitating class-
room visits by the farmer.
“We do activities that relate to what
they’re learning in school,” Phelan said.
“They may go to a dairy and learn all
about that and then in their math class we
might do a graph of milk production.
“The whole idea is to establish a rela-
tionship between students and farmers,”
Phelan said. “It’s nothing like a visit to the
pumpkin patch. It’s more a behind-the-
scenes look at how this farm works.”
Being on a farm is a “very memorable
experience” for most people, she said.
“In the past 10 years we’ve reached
over 20,000 students from Portland to
Medford,” Phelan said. “We ultimately
want people to have a positive experience
that helps them realize that things don’t
just show up in the grocery store, and I
think the pandemic really highlighted that
when some things ran out.”
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