Disney trip no problem for back-to-nature kid

“How You Gonna Keep ’Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree)” went the World War I ditty. But for Samantha Farb, an 11-year-old Jewish girl who has grown up in the Kansas City area without ever having been to a movie theater or drunk a can of soda pop, seeing Disney World last month was no big deal.

Sure, she’s proud that she won the National Association of Women in Construction’s “Block Kids” contest, first on the local level, then regionally and finally nationally. That’s how she won the trip to Orlando, Fla.

But Samantha said it is more fun to attend Vegetarian SummerFest, the annual conference of the North American Vegetarian Society, where she and her family can pick from the meat-free smorgasbord, than it was to see Space Mountain or the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

“We went to Disney World and to a water park … called Blizzard Beach,” Samantha said last week. “I liked the water park more than the amusement park.”

At Disney, she and her father, Joe Farb, “walked around and saw everything,” but didn’t ride too many rides. “I don’t like roller coasters,” Samantha said, allowing as how she did enjoy one car ride and one flume ride.

Sammi and her father had to bring their own snacks (“home-made chocolates, crackers”) because they adhere to a strict diet. In addition to being vegan,  (Ed. note: one who omits all animal products from the diet) they are also gluten-free. Gluten is a protein contained in wheat, rye, barley and many other foods.

Samantha’s mother, JoAnn Farb, is the author of the self-published, 2008 book titled “Get Off Gluten!” It details how the Farbs removed all gluten from their diet after determining that doing so would bring relief to Samantha’s chronic stomach aches and support their own health, they believe. JoAnn attributes the family’s previous move to a vegan diet for relieving Joe’s 30 years of suffering from “hay fever” and allergies.

A trained microbiologist and former sales person for Merck, the multinational pharmaceutical/chemical company, JoAnn Farb had come to the conclusion that eating animal products was neither healthy nor ethical, and she has brought her family along. Now she spends most of her time on the energy-efficient home the family built three years ago in a wooded valley near Lawrence, Kan.

She likened the attention paid to food — its ingredients, the way it’s grown and harvested — in the Farb household to that of an Orthodox Jewish family who keep strict kosher.

They grow much of their own food in gardens and greenhouses on their property. And, of course, JoAnn cooks most of it herself. Recipes make up the bulk of “Get Off Gluten!”

So strong is JoAnn’s desire to raise her children according to her own beliefs that she has home-schooled Samantha and her older sister, Sarina, although Sarina this year began attending Lawrence, Kan., Free State High School.

Their home in rural Lecompton has a television set for watching videos, but no cable or satellite reception.

Fostering creativity
It was through a group of home-schoolers that the Farbs found out about the NAWIC “Block Kids” contest. This was the fifth year that Samantha had entered the contest, in which the participants are typically given a few simple objects and told to build a project with them.

At this year’s local competition — held in February in the Kansas City area — Samantha was given a small bag of plastic building blocks, a piece of paper, some string and a piece of aluminum foil. Her finished project 45 minutes later was meant to represent a solar-powered, wind-powered, hydroelectric-powered facility that recharges batteries for use in construction equipment. It showed three building-block windmills with fan blades made of paper, solar collectors made of foil and a paper river.

“The judges walk around and ask you questions as you work,” Samantha said. “I brainstormed before I got there, and that helped.”

Although her projects in the four previous years had never even made third place, this time her work was chosen from among 74 entries, and thus advanced to the regional competition. In that case, it was not the actual project but a booklet that showed and explained it. Samantha’s project won again at the regional level, and again on the national level. In addition to the Florida trip, she also received a $500 savings bond for her creativity.

“The funniest part,” her mother wrote in an e-mail last month, “is that we have been a ‘no Disney’ family. … We have avoided toys and household goods with any tie-ins to Disney. We have sheltered our children from all things Disney — to minimize their seduction into the mass-market consumptive culture and to foster the growth of their imagination and creativity.

But now — because of her creativity — she will, at 11 years of age, get a full-blown Disney experience.”

JoAnn Farb doesn’t think having her younger daughter spend a day at Disney or having her older child attend high school will corrupt their hard-won independence.

“In some ways, it (home-schooling) is a challenge, and in some ways it makes parenting easier,” JoAnn Farb said. “We are the primary influence. Serena began going to high school, but her feet are firmly on the ground. She knows who she is. … It’s hard to raise strong, healthy kids if you are inundated by (popular) culture.”

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