(ABC 6 News) — Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan visited Riverland Community College in Austin on Thursday, to hear from students, instructors and others about the schools’ efforts in agriculture education.

“Beyond even eating,” said Okechukwu Ukaga, Dean of Food & Agriculture at Riverland, “Ag is everywhere and in so many things; the fiber of the the clothes we wear, energy, and so much more.”

Flanagan toured the Ag and Food Science labs, discussed the statewide efforts to support career programs in the ag sector, and tried her hand at using the school’s combine simulator.

Riverland graduates around 400 students in its ag programs each year, according to Ukaga.

Flanagan cited state tuition programs like North Star Promise and the State Office for Emerging Farmers as going hand in hand with Riverland’s mission to keep our farms flourishing.

“For financial support for folks in the form of low interest and no interest loans to go into farming,” said Flanagan, “…my hope is that based on the programing that they have here, working with middle school students and high school students, we are planting the seeds so that folks see that staying on their family farm or going into farming is is an option for them.”