Teaching students where that burger came from

Life for students is not all MySpace and "Speed Racer." There's room for farmyard dioramas, papier-mache pigs and pictures made from beans glued onto poster board.

Thousands of students from L.A. County, on field trips and with their families, are heading to Pomona this week for the Agriculture and Nutrition Fair. Their entries in many categories were judged and are on display at the Fairplex.

Among them are posters, dolls, science projects and jewelry from Alexandria Shannon's fifth-grade class at Eastwood Elementary School in La Mirada. She decided to take part, she said Wednesday morning in one of the cavernous buildings at the Fairplex, because with so much required learning, "a lot of the fun was taken out of the school day."

Fifth-grader Michelle Bang, 11, made some ribbon-winning posters, including one about farm animals. But she has no desire to live on a farm. "It's nice and all, but it seems like a lot of work," she said.

And we're not expecting her classmate, 10-year-old Tim Ahn, to reject city life anytime soon. He got a prize for a project growing watermelon plants and wasn't charmed: "It's so hard. You have to wait. I'm impatient."

Louise Romano, the chief executive of Schools' Agriculture and Nutrition Program in Walnut, said there are 3,500 entries from students in pre-kindergarten through high school, and a total of about $30,000 in prize money will be distributed.

Romano said there has been a growing emphasis on health and organic agriculture. Those themes are evident in the fair exhibits, as well as an effort to teach children about the sources of their food. (Hint: It's not the supermarket.)

-- Mary MacVean