“Soy Much More for ’24!” rang true for this year’s Norborne Soybean Festival, Aug. 1-3 in Carroll County. For over 40 years, this festival has built civic pride, forged greater community bonds and celebrated the area’s number one industry – agriculture, said University of Missouri Extension engagement specialist Chelsea Corkins.
But in 2024, the Soybean Festival gained national recognition during Cenex’s Hometown Throwdown, a contest to find the best hometown festival in the country. Norborne Soybean Festival won the multiyear competition title of Best Fest and a $100,000 prize.
MU Extension in Carroll County has grown its presence at this festival the past three years, Corkins said. Each year, this cross-disciplinary team of educators and volunteers has found new ways to celebrate soybeans, the farmers who produce them and the livelihoods supported by the agriculture economy. This year, the group included MU Extension engagement specialists and field specialists, nutrition and youth associates, and local 4-H Teen Council volunteers, representing nutrition, agronomy, 4-H, livestock, human development and horticulture. Over 1,500 people, more than double the 679-person population of Norborne, engaged with MU Extension education.
During the festival, MU Extension hosted various youth activities, such as a soybean sensory bin, nutrition-themed tic-tac-toe and soybean cycle coloring sheets. Educational displays featured 4-H projects, a pesticide safety table and a genetics lockbox game. Soybean plant growth stages and nutrition presentations on sugary drinks attracted both adults and youths who also explored MU Extension’s print resources.