Promoting an understanding of the importance of agriculture
A fourth-generation farmer, Darren Schmall was raised in California's great Central Valley, working the ranch his great-grandfather founded around the turn of the century and growing raisins and wine grapes. A star athlete in high school, he earned a double scholarship in baseball and football to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, returning home to CSU Fresno when an injury to his pitching arm sidelined his baseball career.
After graduating with a degree in Plant Science, he worked alongside his dad at the family farm for a year before parlaying a neighbor’s request to borrow spray equipment into a successful business providing agricultural chemical applications. “Growers Helping Growers” was his motto, and this commitment to agriculture extended to volunteering at the local Farm Bureau, speaking to schoolchildren about the importance of farming in a pre-packaged world.
It was at one of these school talks that a roomful of restless and inattentive children inspired Darren to translate his farming pep talk into imagery that even the most citified child could understand – pizza. Their reaction was electric as bored kids were suddenly engaged, eager to talk about their favorite topping and amazed to learn that farmers – not restaurants – were the source of their favorite food. The delighted teacher told her colleagues, and the Farm Bureau began to get requests: specifically for Darren, and specifically for “the pizza talk”. When the teachers began asking for a more interactive experience, Darren arranged to ease several acres at the county fairgrounds, trademarked his brainstorm and “The Pizza Farm” was born.
The phenomenal response earned him a blizzard of awards. In the decade since the first Pizza Farm opened its gates, Darren’s idea has been honored by the United States House of Representatives, the California State Senate and Assembly, city councils, the Fresno and Madera County Offices of Education, the California EPA, 4-H, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the Agricultural Education Foundation. In 1994 he was nominated and selected for California’s Agricultural Leadership two-year fellowship program. His class traveled from the inner cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore to India, Pakistan and Nepal, gaining priceless experience interacting with countries and cultures light years away from the rich fields of California. Back in Madera, he moved the Pizza Farm from the fairgrounds, leasing 15 acres from a walnut grower and adding a pumpkin patch, farm animals, wagon rides, concession stands, Christmas Festival and a seven acre corn maze.
At present, the Madera Pizza Farm is open from March through November, reaching over 25 thousand schoolchildren annually with its vital message of the importance of agriculture. During the peak fall season, up to 2000 kids a day have a ball meeting The Pizza Farmer to learn about pumpkins and farm animals, and another thousand families enjoy the corn maze and festival atmosphere every evening. During the off-season Darren speaks at agri-tourism conferences across the country, encouraging innovation and
inspiring family farmers with creative ways to maximize their return. Still more country boy than city slicker, his entertaining stories of blunders and
success are packed with rock-solid good advice and made irresistible by his engaging raconteur style and unconcealed passion for his – and every other family farmer’s – swiftly passing way of life.
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