Purdue Ag Week is underway on the West Lafayette campus. It was established in 2012 with the purpose of promoting the knowledge of agriculture across the Purdue community.
“Our goal is to bring the College of Agriculture across State Street and bring it to a common place of students so that everyone can learn about the industry,” says Marnie Schwartzkopf, this year’s Purdue Ag Week Task Force President. She’s a senior studying Agricultural Communication.
“Our goal is to educate, engage, and inspire the Purdue community and really just advocate through a celebration of agriculture and have some fun so that people can learn along the way and actually feel motivated to learn about the food system and be empowered to learn about what they’re eating and how it gets to their plates.”
They do that through a different theme each day of the week. They kicked the week off with Milk Monday, giving away free grilled cheese sandwiches and ice cream. Tuesday was Tech Tuesday with drones, tractors, and other ag tech on Memorial Mall for students to check out.
“Wednesday is Burger Bash and Ag Expo, and we are focusing on the animal agriculture industry by serving a wide variety of burgers- beef, turkey, and veggie- to hit all aspects of the ag industry and focus on each of those production methods.”
Thursday they’ll look to Hammer Down Hunger, “where we fight food insecurity locally, nationally and internationally by packing over 66,000 meals with the help of students, industry professionals, and faculty here at Purdue. It’s a really awesome day for the Purdue community to come together for a great cause.”
And the week will conclude with Farm to Fork Friday. You can learn more about Purdue Ag Week in the full HAT interview with Schwartzkopf below.
