Sustainable Agriculture: Teaching Youth and Teachers

Sustainable Agriculture: Teaching Youth and Teachers

Summary

Rationale:
Iowa's youth (the state's future farmers) and adults need to learn firsthand how sustainable
practices work and why they are important. Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), is a non-profit
association of farmers that works to share information on profitable, environmentally sound
farming and to develop new information through replicated, on-farm trials. PFI has joined with
Iowa State University and other organizations in a cooperative effort to improve the adoption of
sustainable agricultural practices by teaching youth and adults.

Methods:
This project will give young people hands-on learning experiences with sustainable practices
through Future Farmers of America chapters, high school agriculture classes, and projects guided
by farmer mentors. In addition, youth will learn through demonstrations on PFI farms and at the
4-H Education and Natural Resources Center. The project will improve in-service training of
high school teachers by developing, with their oversight, curriculum material focused on
sustainable agriculture. The project will also teach youth and adults practical "how-to" steps in
implementing sustainable practices. Ultimately, the project will help sustain Iowa's soil resource
and reduce the use of agricultural chemicals.

Results:
Collaboration with the ISU Agriculture Education and Studies Department involved developing a
set of curriculum materials titled "The Living Soil" and providing in-service training to high
school agriculture teachers on sustainable agriculture topics. Collaboration with the ISU Youth
and 4-H program involved demonstrating sustainable agriculture practices at the Iowa 4-H
Education and Natural Resources Center. Collaboration with the Young Farmer Educational
Association involved providing a speaker and half-day tours of the farm of a PFI
farmer-researcher for the national meeting of the organization. Collaboration with the Iowa
Association of Soil and Water Conservation District commissioners involved helping with a
statewide farming exposition which focused on methods of farming that are profitable and
environmentally sound. Collaboration with the Iowa FFA Foundation involved supporting a
sustainable agriculture award given to FFA members during their annual convention.

Impact:
This project launched an education initiative in Iowa that did not previously exist. As such, the
project's impact has been to expose agricultural professionals in Iowa to the practices and ideas
of sustainable agriculture. While some have been skeptical, they often begin to embrace the ideas
and practices of sustainable agriculture when they hear from PFI farmers why they use these
practices, and when they see how successful these practices are on working farms. Some have
even recognized that sustainable, low-cost methods of farming may enable young people to enter
this occupation. This project has also forged new relationships between PFI and several Iowa
organizations that have overlapping interests, but have not formally worked together in the past.