FFTFF Gives Tours of Food + Farm Exploration Center

2023 Industry Show attendees given chance to see facility’s construction progress

Through partnerships with many in the industry, the Farming for the Future Foundation (FFTFF) has made great progress in the construction of the Food + Farm Exploration Center, in Plover, Wisconsin.

Attendees of the 2023 Grower Education Conference & Industry Show were invited to take an exclusive site tour of the nearly constructed, state-of-the-art facility, which is slated to be open to the public in late summer of this year.

The FFTFF provided tour bus transportation from the Holiday Inn & Convention Center in Stevens Point before and after the Industry Show, February 6-9, to the Exploration Center, where guests learned about exciting construction updates since groundbreaking in April.

Donning construction helmets and vests, guests were given a tour of the Center that’s geared toward education from start to finish.

Above: The Farming for the Future Foundation and J.H. Findorff have made great progress on the state-of-the-art Food + Farm Exploration Center, in Plover, Wisconsin.

Highlights of the tour included walking through what will be a café and public gathering area, event space, teaching farm, exhibit hall, a kitchen lab and catering kitchen, innovation lab, air-controlled potato storage exhibit, irrigation and soil exhibits including complete outdoor pivots equipped with the latest technology, an ag simulator, and more.

Geared toward learners of all ages, the Exploration Center will feature the Sprouts Children’s Gallery and Ag STEM Gallery.

The Sprouts Children’s Gallery will feature exhibits at a playful level for the youngest learners, including a grocery store and food truck. The Ag STEM Gallery will focus exhibits toward a 4th grade level on up through lifelong learners.

Ag Stem Gallery

The Exploration Center includes Sprouts Children’s and Ag STEM galleries. Among other features, the Sprouts Children’s Gallery will include a hands-on grocery story and food truck. The Ag STEM Gallery will have an ag simulator consisting of two complete tractor cabs set into the floor where they will be accessible to all and surrounded by 16 flatscreens in a U-shape around the exhibit for a 360-degree total immersive experience.

The Ag STEM Gallery will have an ag simulator consisting of two complete tractor cabs set into the floor where they will be accessible to all and surrounded by 16 flatscreens in a U-shape around the exhibit for a 360-degree total immersive experience.

Children and adults will be able to sit at the wheels in the cabs and make their own planting, growing and harvesting decisions.

An indoor ag implement showroom is equipped with the largest all-glass retractable door the manufacturer builds, big enough to pull in full-size Lenco harvesters, and the latest red, green and blue equipment of all kinds.

Stairs lead up to a mezzanine where visitors can get a bird’s-eye view of the farm tractors and implements, which will be rotated on a semiregular basis to bring in the latest equipment from a variety of manufacturers.

The FFTFF has raised more than $26 million to build the Center, and yet, there is still work to be done to meet the Cultivating Connection Campaign