Breakfast with the Regional Minister of Agriculture is how today began. Who would have ever known that during breakfast that we would be surrounded by Panamanian press who would follow us all day.
After breakfast we headed to the Vocational Ag School and Center for Excellence in Panama where some amazing things are happening. The school owns about 200 hectares of land in which 30 are set aside for a demonstration farm. The students are responsible for for taking care of the animals in what coould be compared to our Supervised Agricultural Experience Programs. The farm contains dairy cows, goats, pigs, poultry, buffalo, rabbitts and many crops. Each grade is responsible for a specific area of the farm so that the students are well rounded when they graduate. Students must apply to go to this school and pay $40 per semester to attend. Upon graduation they are hired to work with the Ministry of Agriculture to earn money to pursue a post-secondary education. One thing that they are doing that really impressed me is try to improve the genetics of the stock animals that they have so that they can give the genetics to the farmers who cannot afford to make heard improvements.
Our next visit was to a citrus processing facility that was owned by a native of Arkansas. Alex moved here and begin working and now supplies fresh pasturized orange juice to Panama 6 months out of the year. He is currently in the process of expanding his operation to included the processing of pineapple and passion fruit.
We then headed back to Panama City to prepare for an amazing next day zip lining through the rainforest!
From Panama, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same,
Matt
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