Thousands of Valley kids receive agriculture lesson at 12th annual Farm and Nutrition Day

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Valley students from 15 school districts spent Friday learning about where their food comes from.

It's a field trip like no other.

More than 4,000 from 38 Valley schools got a lesson outside of the classroom and learned all things agriculture. From roping to raisins, students got a hands-on experience at the 12th annual Farm and Nutrition Day.

"I'm just learning about cows and different stuff and vegetables and fruit," 3rd-grader Diana Cerrillo said.

Student McKinley Williams says he loves grocery shopping with his grandma but will look at the produce aisle a lot differently after this field trip.

"How they grow almonds, grapes and carrots and stuff," McKinley exclaimed. "They taught me how to grow it and how to plant them."

"It's really bringing the farm to the city and getting to see the diversity of what we grow here in our backyard," Ryan Jacobsen with the Fresno County Farm Bureau said.

The event is sponsored by the FCFB and Big Fresno Fair, and it showcased how agriculture and nutrition go hand-in-hand.

"It's a great opportunity to see how our industry comes together to do what we do," Jacobsen said.

4-H and FFA students were on hand to introduce the world of livestock. Over in the greenhouse, students got the opportunity to sport a green thumb and kick start their gardening with a lettuce plant.

"We grow 99 percent of the nation's raisins within a 60-mile radius within the city of Fresno probably half of these kids have never had raisins before," Jacobsen said.

Fresno County alone produces more than 400 commercial crops annually - grossing $6.61 billion in production value for 2015.