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The Maple View Agriculture Center doesn’t look like something you’d find on a farm. Its four classrooms are filled with colorful pictures of animals and farm equipment. There are separate rooms for teaching about soil science, rocks and minerals, recycling and wildlife. Outside, there’s a barnyard, several gardens and space for families to pick their own produce. It’s not something farmers would have considered a few decades ago, but for Maple View Farm, the answer to a changing agricultural world was diversification. The education center, slated to open next month, is the latest in a line of new projects, including the opening of three Maple View ice cream stores and the bottling of their own milk. The opening of the education center is part of a larger agricultural trend occurring in Orange County. More than 190 agritourism farms have started up in N.C. since 1995, about 50 percent of new farms. Martha Glass, who works with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Maple View is the epitome of agricultural innovation. “We encouraged farmers to think about going into agritourism activities to increase personal and business economics,” she said. “And to help save family farms, in the long run this is what we want to do.” By going into agritourism, most farmers have added between $10,000 and $50,000 to their income, Glass said. This extra income can keep many farms afloat in Orange County, where there are not as many farms as in the past. Driving on country roads, UNC graduate Allison Nichols said she sees far fewer farms than she did during her childhood. Nichols, part of the family that owns Maple View, founded the education center. As someone who grew up on a farm, she said she was shocked by local ignorance of farming. In her previous job as a kindergarten teacher, she once asked her students where milk was made. Their only response was that it came from the grocery store. After an attempt to teach farming in a traditional classroom (she had her students milk plastic gloves), she decided she wanted a more authentic experience. “We wanted to teach with something the kids could touch and see and pass around,” Nichols said. From there, it all happened very quickly. She started planning the education center in October 2007, got the permit in April 2008 and began building that spring. The first trips are booked for next month. She said she planned the center to be a field trip destination for schools during the week and a getaway for families during weekends. Without advertising, she has booked trips for students in Orange, Durham and Alamance counties. Nichols said she hopes Orange County farms can continue to find ways to adapt to the changing agricultural world. “A lot more farms could stay open, which helps you and your neighbors in your county,” she said. |