Course Gives Students Hands-On Training in Crop Production
Slideshow
This slideshow contains 4 slides that will change every 8 seconds. The first button is to play and pause the slideshow, followed by buttons to go to the previous slide, next slide, or choose individual slides.
-
Slide1
A student in ABM 499 sorts through Valencia oranges at the university's citrus packing house.
On a brisk Thursday morning in September, a group of Cal Poly Pomona students picked Valencia oranges at the university’s Spadra Farm.
But this wasn’t a carefree social event. The students gathered the fruit and took to the campus packinghouse. Wearing hair nets, gloves, and other protective gear, the students washed, graded, and sorted the oranges before they were squeezed for juice to be sold at the Cal Poly Pomona Farm Store.
This was ABM 499, a class in Commercial Agribusiness Production, which offers students from across the Huntley College of Agriculture a hands-on education on commercial crop production.
“We work with students from the growing side in plant science, the food
Before they could pick and harvest crops, the students had to become certified food handlers, learn good manufacturing practices and federal and state regulations on selling locally grown produce.
The students then picked a Cal Poly Pomona-grown commodity that they would use throughout the quarter for various lab assignments, including a sales sheet, costing sheet, raw specification sheet, and Food and Drug Administration-approved produce labels.
Students say the experience they gained in the class will help them in their careers.
“I’ve learned packing regulations when it comes to
Chris Rickards, a fourth-year agribusiness management student, said the class offers hands-on industry training.
“This class helps me career-wise because I plan on managing workers, keeping safety workers, and following good agricultural practices,” said Rickards, who plans to become a pest control advisor and work in production agriculture.
- Huntley College of Agriculture student Madeline Dolan wrote this story.