What’s the policy called?

Highlighting the Importance of Ag Education

When did this policy pass?

February 2020

What are the key points of the policy? 

• Everyone is involved in the agriculture industry because we all eat food.
• Very few of us know anything about how our food got into the store – this is a problem.
• If agriculture was taught in schools, this

What do we suggest?

We suggest that the government:

• Include ag education in the existing curriculum where it makes sense, including using experiential leaning (on-farm, community gardens, etc.) 
• Teach children about agriculture when they’re learning about entrepreneurship
• Include ag education in teachers professional development

Who are we suggesting it to?

The provincial government

What are the details?  

Everyone takes part in the agri-business by going to the grocery store, but how much do you actually know about where your food comes from? This is an issue for a whole bunch of reasons – we can’t support our neighbours if we don’t know anything about what they do. Not to mention, there are a whole bunch of career opportunities that our community isn’t aware of, simply because they have never been told.

There are barriers to including ag education into junior and senior high right now because in theory, that’s less time on science, math, or other core courses. Also, if we don’t have teachers that are invested in teaching agriculture, they won’t choose to use their extra time to dig into ag education.

The fact of the matter is that agriculture has a lot to do with all of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines, so ag education could be factored into the regular curriculum. This would help our children be more knowledgeable about where their food comes from, be more aware of future jobs and career opportunities, and be more resistant to misinformation about a primary Canadian industry.

This policy recommends that the government start including agriculture education into the current curriculum at a grade appropriate level. Outside of the regular curriculum, ag should be included when discussing entrepreneurship, as well as through experiential learning opportunities. In order to make all that happen, agriculture needs to be taught to teachers too, which is best done through their professional development training.

Want to read the whole thing? 

Find the complete policy at: https://chamber.medicinehatchamber.com/archives/Details/highlighting-the-importance-of-ag-education-122707