Agriculture As A Required School Subject Is Gaining Popularity
The Philippines may require ag education in schools. Is the US next?
“We have been proposing for DepEd to include agriculture subjects, simple agriculture, in the curriculum of public schools from elementary to high school,” said secretary Emmanuel Piñol, reports Rappler.
The Philippines aren’t alone – more and more countries are realizing that teaching kids the basics of where their food comes from, along with how the vital industry operates, might be a good idea.
Australia, for example, frequently offers agricultural subjects despite their not being a pre-requisite for their universities. Agriculture is a key part of primary and secondary schooling in Kenya. And in the US, baby steps appear to be underway.
On July 26th, USDA secretary Sonny Perdue announced a partnership with FFA, perhaps the biggest and most vocal proponents of agriculture education in America. (FFA technically stands for “Future Farmers of America,” but for some reason they downplay that name and prefer to be called simply FFA.) Perdue and Mark Poeschl, the CEO of FFA, signed a memorandum of understanding, essentially a grandiose handshake, in which Perdue committed the USDA to work with FFA on matters of connecting young people with agriculture.
Perdue’s relationship with public education is complex; he’s come under fire for attempting to remove healthy food requirements from school lunches. And Perdue’s “memorandum of understanding” is not nearly as strong a commitment as Piñol’s statement. That said, FFA is a strong lobbying power. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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by Dan Nosowitz, Modern Farmer
August 3, 2017
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Farming has been revolutionised in modern times. It is no more just a way of life. It has become a Agribusiness. People need to share their best practices to create wider awareness.
Its good to know more about agriculture.
Agriculture should be put into practice at young age if we want to avoid food scarcity in the future and to avoid very high prices for agricultural products.
I m interested in the magazine I m a flute artist & organic farmer
I have been teaching agriculture for ten years in my school and we produce a lot of healthy food.it works and brings kids close to nature
Am interested in agriculture