Many people do not know about the overall process involved in producing the food that they buy at grocery stores.

Alvin Vogel, a beef farmer in Evans City, uses toys to teach them about where their food comes from.

He does that inside a 28- foot-long trailer with a detailed model farm display.

It will be parked every day near the antiques area at the Butler Farm Show. It will be open from 1 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 5 to 10.

The model begins with a county fair scene, complete with several scaled down attractions including a Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, and even fiber-optic fireworks.

It continues through farmland and into a 1960s farming scene with the styles of equipment used during that time.

Then the model transforms into a more modern day farm across the street and features current equipment, silos and an oil well.

Each section has a variety of toy equipment, livestock, crops, buildings, vehicles and even people.

“We try to show all aspects of farming with it,” Vogel said.

The figures have almost all been customized by Vogel’s 31-year-old son, Charles, who either modifies other toys or builds the figures from scratch.

“Since he builds them, many of the figures are one of a kind,” Vogel said of his son’s work. “I don’t think there’s anything else out there like them.”

There are roughly 2,000 figures in the 1/64 scale model display. Vogel said the size comparison would be the same as Matchbox toy cars.

Vogel drives the trailer around to schools and fairs in the area, including the Butler Farm Show. It’s the traveling that is the unique aspect of his model compared to other farm displays.

“Ours is the only one out there that I know of that travels,” Vogel said.

He takes on the expenses of travel to show people the process of farming and to better inform them on where their food comes from.

“A lot of people that live in the country have no idea where their food comes from,” he said.

Vogel said it was his time with 4-H clubs that got him motivated to start teaching people.

He added that some of the youths in the clubs, which are dedicated to farming and agriculture, still had no idea how farms worked or where their food came from.

Vogel also likes to discuss legislative issues facing farmers.

“We just want to educate people on the issues out there,” Vogel said. “I think it’s very important.”

He had the idea for the trailer years ago, but was unable to make it happen because of the price of such a project.

But about five years ago Vogel found a man in Minnesota who had a trailer with a farm display, but could no longer care for it because of his health problems.

Vogel jumped at the opportunity to buy the trailer for a good price and got to work making it his own display.

He removed about 200 toys the previous owner had and started adding his son’s work. The family has been working on adding to it ever since.

The model now is completely full, meaning it now changes on a regular basis as Vogel cycles through the extra toys.

Vogel uses his experiences as a lifetime farmer to help his son craft authentic representations of farming to display.

He also uses his experience to explain to viewers the importance of farming and why it is a vital process that everyone should understand.

Vogel said the biggest response he gets after his presentations is from people asking why farmers put in so much work.

“It’s born in us,” Vogel said is his response. “It’s just what we do.”