Primus Group Set to Participate in First Annual Santa Barbara County Farm Day
Ventura County resident Mary Maranville grew up around agriculture. Her father ran a dairy farm in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. When she relocated to Ventura County 20 years ago, Mary and her husband also began farming.
In 2008, she witnessed a local elementary school’s field trip to a farm near Santa Paula and came to realize that the young people on the trip knew little to nothing about where the food they ate came from. After that revelation, she decided to found Students for Eco-education and Agriculture (SEEAG) in Ventura in the hopes of creating agricultural ambassadors that will help preserve family farms around with world.
SEEAG launched a number of efforts to spread knowledge and information about farming, environmental education, and nutrition. In conjunction with Petty Ranch, SEEAG started Farm Lab. It includes both classroom activities for elementary school students (utilizing the Farm Fresh Mobile Classroom), as well as field trips to Petty Ranch in Saticoy.
SEEAG also developed curricula for middle and high school students to teach them about careers in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, and Mathematics) with a special focus on 21
st Century agricultural employment. SEEAG also launched the Ventura County Child Wellness Initiative to offer teachers toolkits that include information to help further integrate nutritional education into their classroom instruction.
Finally, in 2013 SEEAG created the first Ventura County Farm Day, a chance for individuals and families to visit participating farms, agricultural facilities, and ag-related businesses. The idea was for participating business to open their doors to the public to tell people about their products and how they produce them.
November 9, 2019, marks Ventura County Farm Day’s seventh year, and based upon its overwhelming success, the State of California has given SEEAG a grant to spread the program to other counties in California. Hence, the First Annual Santa Barbara County Farm Day, which will be held in Santa Maria on September 28, 2019.
PrimusLabs has agreed to become not only one of the Farm Day locations, but also a proud Farm Day supporter. Besides PrimusLabs, other Farm Day locations include Allan Hancock College, Babé Farms, Bonipak Produce Company, Engel and Gray Harvest Blend Compost, Innovative Produce, Main Street Produce, Plantel Nurseries, Rancho Laguna Farms, Reiter Affiliated Companies at Union Valley Ranch, Riverbench Vineyard, and Tres Hermanas Vineyard and Winery.
Mark your calendars for September 28th and join us at PrimusLabs, 2810 Industrial Parkway in Santa Maria, to tour our laboratories and learn more about food safety.
