Connecting the community with local agriculture and insects through virtual farm tours

In Seminole County, Florida, Farm Tour is a long-time tradition, held for over 20 years, to educate the community on topics within agriculture and encourage support of local farms. Historically, participants attended an in-person educational tour of local farms, but in 2020, this event did not occur due to transition of extension faculty and the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the farmers expressed needs to continue promoting agricultural literacy in the local community. In 2021, due to continued COVID-19 precautions, Farm Tour pivoted to a virtual format for the very first time. University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension Seminole County developed six high-quality videos in collaboration with Seminole County Government TV (SGTV). Each video included farmer-led content on topics like beekeeping, pollination, organic agriculture, agritourism, and more. One of the six videos took viewers on an up-close journey inside a beehive with a commercial beekeeper to learn about insect pollination services in agriculture. The short (< 5 min) videos were also paired with educational blogs that dove deeper into the topics. Content was shared and promoted across multiple social media platforms during a week-long event. The Seminole County Virtual Farm Tour reached over 2,700 people which greatly exceeded the average 45 people at in-person Farm Tours in the past. A follow-up survey was used to measure outcomes on agriculture awareness and the results of the survey will be presented.