Tuesday, March 14, 2023
You’re ready to bake a cake. You’ve got flour, sugar, oil, and — oh no — you’re out of eggs. A quick run to the store will take you at least 20 minutes between transportation and standing in line. But those eggs you buy will also cost you a pretty penny because of recent egg shortages driving up prices.
Also, those eggs? They will likely have traveled tens or hundreds of miles to get from the chicken to you. Most eggs in America are produced in large-scale factory farms. But some budding ag students in Milwaukee are cutting down the miles your eggs need to travel to you, while also providing a cost-effective, fresh alternative to factory farm eggs.
At Vincent High School (a Milwaukee Public School offering a specialized education with an emphasis on agriculture), students raise chicks into egg-laying cash cows. They are responsible for every element of keeping the animals alive and thriving — from making sure that the animals are healthy and receiving important nutrients (and sometimes, pets), to mucking out their areas and making sure that their nesting boxes are clean and tidy. They also learn about how to control bird-to-bird and bird-to-human diseases like Salmonella and Bird Flu.
Backyard chickens may be a mainstay in many Wisconsin rural areas and even some cities, but Vincent High School’s program brings the chickens to Milwaukee students’ metaphorical backyards, helping them make connections between what they eat and how it’s produced.
If you want to get your hands on some of Vincent’s farm fresh eggs, you can either message the Agriculture Facebook page, or they will sell them in-person during the Vincent High School fish fries in March. At $4/dozen, they’re a steal, they taste great, and you’re helping students learn more about how agriculture can enrich their lives and futures.
We think they're eggceptional.
National Poultry Day is Sunday, March 19th, 2023. National Agriculture Week is March 21-27, 2023.