Rob: Well, each year, thousands of international students come to Oklahoma
to pursue higher education degrees, which is why Oklahoma's Farm Bureau
makes a special effort to take these students on a tour outside the city
lights.
Dustin Mielke reports.
Dustin Mielke: To showcase Oklahoma agriculture and celebrate its place in the
global economy, Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Young Farmers and Ranchers
hosted a tour of Oklahoma agriculture for international students
from Oklahoma State University.
The tour gave 48 students from around the globe the chance to get out of the
classroom and apply and expand their education into the field as they
visited northeastern Oklahoma.
The tour included stops at cattle ranches, food processing facilities and
several research stations.
Pauline Aad, an animal science Ph.D.
student from Lebanon, says the tour gives her some much-needed perspective on
agriculture outside of the classroom.
Pauline Aad: I'm in animal science and I study what's going on in animal
production, but yet I cannot really get a grasp on the real deal except by
coming on these tours.
It's a very good learning experience, and it's been wonderful so far.
Dustin: Melinda Freundt, Chairman of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Young
Farmers and Ranchers' Committee, says the tour helps expand awareness of
Oklahoma's Ag industry.
Melinda Freundt: I think it's vitally important for us to always be aware that
we are Ag ambassadors, for not only the state of Oklahoma, but for the
United States.
And we do export and import a lot of products.
I think it's very important for them to see that we are very proud of
how we produce a very safe, viable product that we are exporting to many
of these countries of the students that are here with us today.
Dustin: Aad says the information she learned on the tour will help her
when she returns to her home country.
Aad: We do things differently in Lebanon.
But some of the things that you guys do here can be incorporated back in
the production.
And if it's not incorporated, if nothing, it will be a good learning
experience for the students to know what's out there, and to know the
American practices in terms of cattle raising, in terms of, especially, I
mean, we don't raise any beef cattle, so most of it is imported, and some of
it is from the U S, so it does help the people a little bit to learn how
these cattle they're eating are being produced and stuff like that.
Dustin: And Freundt says the tour helps students, farmers and ranchers
understand each other better in our global marketplace.
Freundt: The one thing that surprises me the most on this tour is that we're
all the same.
You know, we're all neighbors.
We have the same concerns.
We have the same hardships, and many of the same problems.
And we get to celebrate some of the many same things as well.
So, I think you would be very surprised if you brought people together
like this.
Dustin: As the students return home, Farm Bureau hopes the experiences on
the tour will provide lasting benefits for the world's citizens.