To get kids interested in agriculture, Darren Schmall created a Pizza Farm using live animals and crops.

Ag alumnus creates "Pizza Farm"

by Mary Lisa Russell

Dough, cheese, tomato sauce, pepperoni, olives, herbs and such -- they're standard pizza ingredients. But when Darren Schmall made his pizza, he used half an acre of land, fencing, live animals and a host of crops.

Kids love pizza, according to Schmall, and his Pizza Farm draws more than 10,000 Valley elementary school children each year to the Madera area to learn about agriculture.

Located on the Madera District Fairgrounds, the Pizza Farm is a circular plot of ground divided into slices that house live animals and crops typically used for ingredients in making pizza. The Pizza Farm, operated by a non-profit organization, currently serves a seven-county area's school children and visitors.

Schmall, an alumnus of the School of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, is a mentor for agricultural awareness and education. He says that visiting the Pizza Farm makes learning about agriculture interesting and fun for kids.

Schmall said that the Pizza Farm gets the kids thinking about where food comes from and how it is processed for consumption. "They make that connection - like dairy cows and cheese, or tomatoes and pizza sauce," he said. "Most kids don't know where products they eat everyday come from or how they are grown."

Beef cattle, hogs, and dairy cows are housed separately in three of the sections. The other five sections are used to grow herbs, wheat, bell peppers, tomatoes and olives.

Educational materials developed through the Pizza Farm project are currently used in 30 states, and replicas of the farm are sprouting up all over the country according to Schmall. Most recently, Mississippi State University opened its own version based on Schmall's creation.

For more information on the Pizza Farm, call Schmall at (559) 675-1254 or visit the Web at www.pizzafarm.org.