Book aims at understanding farming

These schools have all won ‘George the Farmer’ book sets in a recent competition by agri-lending specialist Rabobank.

They were asked to provide a brief explanation on why they should receive a set of the books. Several urban schools said that they would help build students’ understanding on a topic they know little about, while some rural schools thought that the books would help build pride among pupils from farming families.

Back in 2012, South Australia farmer Simone Kain was looking for farming books and apps for her farm obsessed son George. She quickly discovered that there wasn’t a global human farming character telling sequential stories for children about life on the land.

Thus, in 2014 the ‘George the Farmer’ book and education resource series was born. Over the next nine years, more than 100,000 Aussie kids have connected to the earth, food and farm through the adventures of George, his agronomist wife Dr Ruby and their twin children Lucy and Jack.

The books have also been garnering attention outside of Australia, with stockists in the US and Canada selling the brand over the past nine months and retail sales in many countries, including the UK, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Attracting nearly 250 entries, the competition’s winning NZ schools were announced in late September, with the sets – featuring six ‘George the Farmer’ books covering different agricultural sectors – to be delivered early in term four.

Each book is connected to a set of learning resources which teachers can access online. Additionally, with help from Kain and the New Zealand Agribusiness in Schools programme. Seven NZ-specific learning resources with a variety of activities from Year 1-5 students have been developed and are now available on the Agribusiness in Schools website.

Rabobank Upper North Island client council chair Donna Arnold said the bank’s network had developed the competition with the aim of improving knowledge about farming and food production among young Kiwis.

As well as the book competition, Arnold says the network has also been developing other recent activities to improve understanding of food production and highlight agri sector career opportunities.