Much of what children know about the world comes from what is taught in school. Yet schools on the Prairies teach little about how food is produced and about opportunities in agriculture despite the importance of the agriculture sector in the region. Reporters Robert Arnason in Brandon and Barb Glen in Lethbridge visited schools and talked with educators, students and agricultural education promoters. They found the emphasis on agricultural education often depends on teacher interest, and found a need for accurate, balanced information.
WINNIPEG — Andrea Overby, who teaches human ecology at Westwood Collegiate in Winnipeg, knows what to expect when she tells her students that they will be learning about farming.
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Inevitably, the students roll their eyes and groan.
Overby perseveres in spite of the moans because she believes teenagers, and all Canadians, need to know more about farming and food.
“I really want my students to think about where their food comes from,” Overby said during a break in her day in mid-October.
“This is something (students) encounter every day and I want (them) to think about (their) food supply.”
Overby’s commitment to talk about agriculture in her classroom is admirable but rare. Most teachers in Manitoba don’t discuss food or farming in class.
Why is that?
One possibility is that most teachers aren’t interested in farming. Another is that agriculture isn’t part of the province’s education curriculum, with the exception of one unit in Grade 10 geography called Food from the Land.
“Teachers, you can’t blame them,” said Johanne Ross, Agriculture in the Classroom executive director for Manitoba. “They don’t have a lot of time so they’re going to stick to what they have to teach.”
The shortage of agricultural material in the provincial curriculum is odd, considering the province’s history and the importance of agriculture to its economy.
Ag in the Classroom, which is funded by the agricultural industry, producer groups and individuals, tries to fill the void with agricultural programming, teacher resources and school events such as the Made in Manitoba Breakfast.
All that is great, but Manitoba students still don’t learn much about agriculture, said Merv Pritchard, associate dean of academics for the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.
“In my opinion, I don’t know that they’re getting much exposure to agriculture,” he said.
“Students, even those fairly closely connected to farm operations … they may know production agriculture very well, but I don’t think they have much of an appreciation for all the businesses and careers that people can have in agriculture that aren’t related to the farm.”
As a result, the U of M agriculture faculty struggles to recruit students for its programs.
“Right now we depend on international students to fill seats,” he said. “We are under capacity in many of our programs … (even though) the careers are there. We keep hearing from industry that they’re concerned about the shortage of people.”
Ross admitted that Ag in the Classroom, with its mission to spread accurate, balanced and current information about modern farming, reaches only 12 to 15 percent of Manitoba students a year.
Although she would like to reach more, Ross is also worried about the scattershot approach and lack of consistency when it comes to agriculture education in the province.
One falls short, another steps in
If Ag in the Classroom doesn’t reach a particular student, that child is likely to learn about agriculture from another source.
For example, Food Matters Manitoba has school programs that focus on the importance of local, healthy and sustainable food. It hosts the annual Growing Local conference in Manitoba and organizes the Locavore Iron Chef, a cooking contest for high school students.
However, the organization is not just about local food, said Kreesta Doucette, Food Matters Manitoba executive director.
“We used to do a workshop that was focused on food miles, but we’re more aware than we were a few years ago that it’s just one part of the equation when it comes to the environment and our food…. We (now) talk about sustainable food.”
Ross doesn’t take issue with Food Matters Manitoba and its mandate, but worries that teachers are inviting people into the classroom who have a radical perspective on agriculture and food production.
She said agriculture would ideally be part of the education curriculum in Manitoba. In lieu of that, the best alternative is to cultivate teachers who have a genuine enthusiasm for agriculture.
“If it was mandated, we would have much more of a pathway into the classroom. (Instead), we have to inspire teachers … to bring it into the classroom.”
In the 2000s, Ag in the Classroom joined forces with the U of M’s education faculty to develop a credit course called teacher learning adventure.
Overby took the course when she attended the university.
“It was a wonderful and amazing experience,” said Overby, who described the course as a week of lectures and visits to farms in western Manitoba.
“I grew up in a rural area. I thought I knew quite a bit about agriculture, but I didn’t,” she said.
“That made me think, ‘OK, if I grew up in a rural area … what are the chances that my (students) here in the city have any idea about these things?’ ”
The course convinced Overby to bring agriculture into her classroom but inspired few other teachers. The university cancelled the credit course after three years.
Ross lobbied the education dean to retain the course but said efforts failed because many educators have a skewed view of farming.
“The word agriculture does not link to academia,” she said.
“What I mean by that is anybody outside of our industry does not consider it an academic subject.”
Pritchard said most high school teachers don’t establish a relationship between science and real world careers.
“I’m not sure how well they connect the basic sciences (to) how you apply this in agriculture or medicine or business,” he said.
As a result, most students don’t link academics with agriculture.
Ross has responded by establishing a network of teachers who understand agriculture and promote it as a dynamic career option.
Pritchard said that’s great, but Manitoba needs hundreds, not dozens, of teachers who are agriculture advocates.
“The biggest challenge we’ve had is trying to deliver the message … that a young person (who studies agriculture) can go work for a financial institution or be involved in international trade or food product development,” he said.
“That’s the thing we have to keep pushing because they’re not getting the message anywhere in the system.”
