In the News

Dignitaries Hail Progress of Agriculture Showcase
Columbia Daily Tribune
May 10, 2008
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By Jason Rosenbaum

Dignitaries from the political, educational and economic development arenas celebrated groundbreaking yesterday for a 17,000-square-foot-building that would become a focal point for Jefferson Farm and Gardens.

The ceremony on a 67-acre site along New Haven Road, just southeast of Columbia, was meant to showcase progress on the project since 2006 on land provided by the University of Missouri. The demonstration area is operated by the not-for-profit Jefferson Agricultural Institute and is paid for with a variety of federal, state, local and private funds.

The visitors center will feature classrooms, a library and exhibits on crops, livestock and conservation efforts along with an adjoining greenhouse.

Rob Myers, the institute’s executive director, said the center will offer schoolchildren and anyone interested in agriculture a starting point to view the agricultural land. The project site also will feature a children’s garden, orchards, a stocked lake, a barnyard with livestock and a dozen demonstration fields.

Myers also said the visitors center would add another educational destination for visitors in Columbia, which already features various museums at MU and the recently opened YouZeum, an interactive health museum downtown.

"It gives Columbia more of a destination location for people, maybe from St. Louis and Kansas City," Myers said. "It will also help the economy of the area through helping providing workshops to train landowners and new ideas."

Columbia Public Schools administrators see the agriculture showcase as a way to teach children about farming. Sara Torres, the school district science coordinator, said Jefferson Farm would be a welcome resource, particularly for nearby New Haven Elementary School.

"The institute will be an educational farm that will be utilized by teachers, by students and the general public," Torres said. "People of all ages … can learn about the current trends in agriculture."

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., who helped secure federal funds for the project, said the project’s benefits go beyond fostering economic development and educating schoolchildren. The facility also will provide farmers with insights into working more effectively.

"Jefferson Farm and Gardens will be a place where people can come to get ideas about how to use their own property to grow fruit, vegetables … or implement conservation practices or plant chestnuts," Bond said, referring to a later commemorative chestnut tree planting by the senator and schoolchildren.

Jefferson Farm and Gardens is scheduled to open to the public in 2009.