Written by Jessica McGrath

Does pineapple come from tins or do eggs come from cartons?

The country came to city kids today at the 14th Rural Discovery Day at the Brisbane Showgrounds, discovering where the food they eat comes from.

Country kids from Kingaroy launched the day, showing more than 1,000 primary school students their own age, rural communities can be fun, with some whip cracking.

Live demonstrations and talks from farmers and other groups teamed up with the popular petting zoo to teach children about the world food comes from.

RNA Chief Executive Brandon Christon says it is important we do not lose our connection with the land in our urbanised world.

“City kids in particular do think their milk does come from the carton, the meat comes from the supermarket shelf and this day today is all about teaching them it does come from our farmers and the land.”

Mary River Gold Pines farmer Chris Doyle says many children are surprised how their food is grown.

“Other schools thought lettuce came out of a plastic bag from Woolworths and said I didn’t know it grew out of the ground,” he says.

Only 10 out of 29 children from a class had tasted pineapple before one of his demonstrations he says.

Students are often inspired to grow their own produce, including one boy who returned to show Mr Doyle photos of the pineapple plant he grew after his first Rural Discovery Day two years ago.

Seven-year-old Lorelai says the day was fun and she learnt “food comes from trees and plants”.

The origins of some foods were easy to work out.

Lorelai says the seaweed from her favourite food sushi, comes from the bottom of the ocean.

Parent Kelly Bartholomeusz says even though she lives on a small acreage with horses and a veterinary clinic, the day was still a valuable experience for the children to learn about rural life and different species.

She says her kids, and her grandchildren, have a vegie patch at home to learn how to grow their own foods.

“I think this is the best way to teach them and to do projects where you learn where your food comes from.”

Taking a different approach to the day, students were encouraged to create mini movies, using stop-motion animation, of the journey food takes to our tables.

Each stage of the milk, bread and sugar production process was filmed by a group of children moving a toy tractor harvesting or milking a cow.

Milk-bottle Stop Motion produced by students on the day. (Video supplied by Activate Entertainment).

Activate Entertainment Stall owner Callum Roberts says the biggest thing with their program is the engagement level.

“They don’t necessarily say it, but they are completely immersed in it and it’s just a side effect they are also learning about the process.”

The day was a hint of the fun to come at Queensland’s agricultural show Ekka, only 85 sleeps away.

Mr Roberts says their program will run during the show to teach kids about food production, as well as their You-Tube content creation stage.