<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">ROANOKE — Students from Moss Bluff Elementary School received a first-hand look Monday at how crawfish go from the farm to the dinner table.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Six classes of first-graders, their teachers, parents and grandparents spent the morning touring a crawfish farm and processing facility in Roanoke in Jeff Davis Parish. The group also visited to the Gator Chateau in Jennings to learn about alligators.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Our goal is for the students to see the cultural aspects of living in the unique state of Louisiana,” teacher Brittni Conrad said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For local crawfish, rice and vegetable farmer Burt Tietje, the tours are a way to promote the importance of agriculture on the local economy and let students know where their food comes from.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We want them to know that food doesn’t come from a box on a shelf or stores like Kroger or Walmart, or restaurants like McDonald’s or Burger King,” he said “It comes from places like this.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Tietje plants about 200 acres of rice each year and about 115 acres of crawfish on his 440-acre farm in rural Jeff Davis Parish.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“It’s all about the rural nature of Jeff Davis Parish and what we have to sell,” Tietje said. “We sell authenticity. It’s not Disneyland with fantasy. Here they can see planes flying over. Trucks going down the road. They see where the farmers work.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Nearly 110,000 acres of crawfish are produced annually in Jeff Davis and Acadia parishes, with 160,000 acres of rice, Tietje said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Together the two parishes produce 65 million pounds of crawfish, which generates nearly $92 million in the local farm economy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">For the past nine years, Tietje has opened his 65-acre crawfish pond off Farm Supply Road just west of Jennings to visitors as part of a crawfish tour sponsored by the Jeff Davis Parish Tourism Commission. The tours run from March to May, during the crawfish harvest season.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“We want people to learn where their food comes from and understand the origin of everything they put in their mouth,” Tietje. “We also want them to understand how important the crawfish industry is to Louisiana.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Tietje conducts about 30 tours a year with 3,000 people visiting the farm last year.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">During the tour, Tietje talked about the life cycle of the crawfish, how they work into the crop rotations and harvesting.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He also talked about the various predators, weather and other problems crawfish farmers face on a daily basis.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I learned how you catch crawfish and put them in a boat,” first grader Marlee Duhon said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Classmate Addyson Domingue was surprised to learn how crawfish farmers use the traps to catch the crawfish and how important crawfish is to our food sources and the economy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“I learned that crawfish is healthy for you and that this is how they get crawfish,” first grader Madilyn Walker said.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Lindsey Davis, a first grader, said it was interesting to see how farmers catch the crawfish and how the crawfish live on the farm.</span><p class="p1">Jeff Davis Parish crawfish farmer Burt Tietje discusses the growing cycle of crawfish Monday as students from Moss Bluff Elementary School visit his 65-acre crawfish pond in Roanoke. Tietje uses the tours to promote the importance of agriculture on the local economy and let students know where their food comes from. (Doris Maricle/American Press)</p>