Did you notice an additional 100 people on the property?

There was no need to call security. Because on June 23rd, Brooks Tropicals hosted 100 educators from the 2011 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference held in Fort Lauderdale.

The conference gave teachers from across North America a chance to see Florida agriculture firsthand and participate in interactive workshops that show them how to incorporate real-life agricultural applications into their language arts, math, nutrition, science and social studies classroom lessons.

Almost 400 participants took part in the conference which was hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Florida Department of Agriculture, Florida Agriculture in the Classroom and the Southern Region Agriculture in the Classroom states.

Upon arriving at Brooks, they were given a walk-through of our avocado groves on the Southwest section of the facility by Bill Brindle and Mary Ostlund. Then Brittany Morrow and Mary gave them tours of the packing house and refrigerated loading dock.

The tour ended with a Caribbean Red papaya snack and - we couldn't resist - a pop quiz about the information they heard while on tour. Instead of grades, the winners of the pop quiz were given Brooks Tropicals' straw hats.