Raise

What 4-H Teaches 7 Million Kids & How Its Lessons Could Change Food & Farming Forever

By Kiera Butler

Originally I grabbed this book because I was curious how others viewed the world of 4-H. What I found was someone who, through her own research, came to her own conclusion that 4-H was beneficial to kids in ways that schools couldn’t provide. Someone who might be considering 4-H as an extra-curricular activity for either themselves or their kids could get a pretty good idea from this book of what goes into a 4-H livestock project. The author started out completely uninformed, interviewed and visited 4-H meetings, daily feedings of the animals, and the county fair finale. Her findings are very typical of most 4-H’ers, as I’ve been a former 4-H member/advisor and have seen all this for myself. What did surprise me was how the competitiveness has evolved in the last 25 years, and how some care practices have changed. All in all, a very interesting book for both those who know all about 4-H and those who have only ever heard of its name.

~Becky