Students extend thanks to farmers

That was the message from Mt Pleasant Primary School students to Australian farmers.

The school recently received a $10,000 grant from the Primary Industries Education Foundation for students to learn about where their food comes from.

As part of the program, students watched a one-hour play, The Country Life, which featured two couples - one a farming family and the other a city family.

The play features singing, dancing and comedy to teach children exactly how bread, eggs, dairy, wheat and other products are made and how they get to market.

Teachers and students had already started planning a school vegetable garden to provide fresh vegetables for the canteen.

Students Kelsey Dorrington, Jack Grant, Ruby Riches, Luis Marques-Weaver and Jamie King said they now thought more about the food in their lunchboxes every day.

"I learned a lot about where our food comes from and how much effort goes into growing wheat and how much farmers actually do to make our meals," Year 5 student Ruby said.

The students also attended one-on-one sessions with Primary Industries and Royal Agriculture Society staff and met some farm animals.

"I think about farming a lot because my aunty has a farm in Brazil with cows, chooks, dogs and other animals and she grows wheat too," 10-year old Luis Marques-Weaver said.

"Today I learned about sustainability and how we should be using solar power instead of using coal, which pollutes the environment."

Kelsey Dorrington said she was very keen on becoming a farmer when she grows up.

"My step-mum and dad have a farm which is about 100 acres with sheep, three alpacas, chooks and our pets like mice and dogs, but I have to watch the mice around the cats," Kelsey said.

Year 5 student Jack says he often travelled to country towns like Busselton and Dunsborough with his parents, but now knows a lot more about agriculture.

"I learned a lot today and now I often think quite a few things about where our food comes from," he said.