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Food + Farm Exploration Center on track for fall opening

A new education center designed to help children and adults understand agriculture and where their food comes from will open this fall.

Malorie Paine with the Food + Farm Exploration Center says the goal is, “Showing people that they’re connected to production food agriculture even when they may not realize it.”

Paine tells Brownfield the new Plover, Wisconsin facility and its programs will challenge how people think about modern food production. “All of our design elements from the inside to the outside, parking lot, and everywhere in between is really with the purpose of showing that agriculture is tech-driven, it’s innovative, and it’s really driving other industries in tech development as well.”

And with demonstration fields, technology displays, modern farm equipment, education space, and a community kitchen, Paine hopes the experience will prompt people to get more involved in agriculture. “our visitors can really become the innovators and doers, so taking what they’ve seen in the exhibit spaces, taking what they’ve seen on the teaching farms and really becoming potentially involved in the industry through careers later in life.”

Paine says the fundraising for the new center has been coming from industry, large farms, small farms, plus corporate and community partners.  So far, twenty-six million of the thirty-eight million dollar goal has been raised, and she’s optimistic the goal will be reached before the Food + Farm Exploration Center opens.