10 Reasons Why Ag Education Should Be a Top Priority
There are SO many reasons why Ag education should be a top priority.
The FFA organization is celebrating its 90th anniversary soon, and in that time has grown to 670,000 members. Obviously, Agricultural Education is nothing new. But as of late it has been widely dismissed as a remnant of the dinosaur days. Those days when people actually had to grow food. This was way back when food didn’t just grow at the local grocery store…
Many school administrators and school districts seem to believe that Ag Ed is an inferior curriculum with no rigor. They are ignorant.
The truth is that Ag Ed is a challenging STEM curriculum that includes science, math, engineering, and some of the world’s most advanced technology.
If we continue to neglect agriculture, there will be dire consequences. Why should we neglect it, when there are ten great reasons to support it wholeheartedly?
1.Good Business
Every year $130-150 billion worth of American agricultural products are exported around the world. Agriculture is one of very few business sectors that is a money-maker for the United States. We export more food and fiber around the world than we import, creating a positive agricultural trade balance. So why do so many school systems ignore this entire field of endeavor?
2. Family Business
In the United States, there are 2.1 million farms and ranches. 99% of these farms and ranches are family-owned and operated, sole-proprietorships, family partnerships or family corporations. In order to maintain our positive trade deficits mentioned above, these farms and ranches need to be left in the hands of operators that are trained in the Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Business.
3.Food Security
How many people does each farmer feed? Each farm feeds approximately 165 people annually in this country and abroad. By 2050 the world’s population is expected to rise from the current 7.5 billion to 9.7 billion. This means that the demand for food products will skyrocket to the point where every current farmer will need to produce 70% more than he or she is currently producing just to satisfy the actual demand! There is no more land to produce, so these future farmers will have to be the most efficient and skilled farmers of all time on Earth. Without a strong Agricultural curriculum firmly in place throughout this country, how will these skills be developed?
4. Huge Responsibility
Just 2 percent of the U.S. population, are actually production farmers and ranchers. This may seem insignificant, but the significance becomes apparent when you realize that these entrepreneurs are producing for the entire 100% of the citizens of the United States and parts of the world. So you can see that if we fail to educate the next generation of agricultural producers, how fast this supply issue could become a disaster. You can imagine what this would do to world stability.
5. Death of Experience
We are quietly letting our trained farmers and ranchers die off. The average age of today’s US farmers and ranchers is 58 years old. That is the oldest average age of any other business sector by about 20 years! Our seasoned farming experience is retiring and our pipeline of upcoming talent is very low. This is not because of a lack of interest, but because of a lack of accessibility to an Agricultural Program. Why are we not preparing our next generation of agricultural producers?
6. Inexperienced Hands
Young people under the age of 34 years comprise 20% of all farmers. This is way too big a responsibility to leave in the hands of beginning farmers. About 257,000+ of all farmers, have been farming less than 10 years. Although it is good to see more and more young entrepreneurial spirits join the ranks of agriculturalists, we are not backfilling this giant hole fast enough.
7. Lowest Cost of Food in the world
The US enjoys the lowest costing food in the world, based upon percent of household income. This is another great reason to prioritize Agricultural Education. In European countries, the cost of food runs around 8-10% of household income. In some African nations and some island nations, the cost of food is 40-50% of household income. Because we are a nation built-on agriculture, we enjoy food costs that are only 6.4% of the average US household income. This is a wonderful reason for politicians at every level to climb on board the Ag Education train, and make sure that we don’t lose this benefit for everyone.
8. So Many Jobs
Most people have no idea that 11% or 21.1 million people in the US workforce work directly or indirectly in the Agricultural sector. Everything from trucks to trains, chemists to veterinarians, loggers to agronomists, technologists to mechanics, retail to marketing, this list goes on for about 350 different ag-related jobs. Do we want to lose these jobs to another country that is better at understanding the importance of Agricultural Education?
9. Depend on the Women
What was once considered to be a male dominated field, agriculture has thrown its doors open wide to a terrific female class of farm and ranch owners and operators. Women own and operate about 30% of the farms and ranches in the US today. In my experience, the female farmers that I know, are very detail oriented. Also,they are much more empathetic to the needs and wants of their crops and animals. If you look at the Agricultural education programs that are in place across the nation, you will find that the girls are on the rise, are excelling, and may be well over 50% of those ag students. Let’s make these programs available to young ladies everywhere.
10. Food Safety
In the US we are lucky that we have well trained food inspectors. We don’t have to depend on bringing the bulk of our produce in from less responsible foreign food sources. Food inspectors and food inspection analysts are some of the fastest growing jobs in agriculture. Food safety is a staple of most ag programs.
In the US, we simply take food safety for granted. We Americans do not see the amount of education and regulation that is entrusted to our agricultural programs.
Summary
The Agricultural sector is solely responsible for a wonderful trade surplus with the world, billions of dollars in products, and millions of jobs. It is also responsible for the lowest cost of food, and the safety and security of our food supply.
In this article I haven’t even touched on the fibers that are grown for our clothes, or the lumber that is cultivated for building our homes, but the fact that they are both life requirements is beyond dispute.
Technology in Agriculture
The technology companies see the importance of the agricultural industry. Some of the fastest growing robotic and technology companies in the world are the producers of agricultural robots, drones, sensors, and satellites. These are the types of products that will help us to feed all of those 2.2 billion new mouths by the year 2050.
The 9000 Ag Ed programs in the US offer agriscience, advanced agriscience, advanced biotechnology, agricultural mechanics, horticulture, animal science, and environment-related curriculum.
Hands-On Learning
Collectively, FFA members earn more than $4 million annually through their hands-on agricultural work experiences. These agricultural students learn advanced career skills in 47 different national proficiency areas. Based on their own first-hand work and experiences ranging from agricultural communications, food science, technology, turf grass management, wildlife production, agricultural mechanics, farm business management and many more. According to a recent student magazine readership study, 81 percent of these students are interested in college preparation courses and technology.
I believe that within our school systems, there is a huge misconception that agriculture is a dying art, or a quaint cottage industry that once flourished but is no longer viable as a way of life. To that I say that Agriculture IS Life and further, Agricultural Education is our first and last hope for the sustainability of LIFE on this planet. Let that tumble around in your brain for a minute…
Thank you for spending some time with me.
Love, Peace, and Light.
Terry has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. He has taught in the New York State School system for 18 years, where he teaches Career and Financial Management, Agricultural Business, Marketing and Distribution, Sports Management, Wildlife Conservation Management, and Resort and Recreation Management. His time has also been spent as an FFA advisor for 12 years and has been farming his 100-acre family farm since 1991. Terry has a deep love of all types of agriculture and takes every opportunity to promote agricultural education.