Developing the Informed Consumer

This post originally appeared in The Farmer's Pride:

For this month’s column, I am putting on my “youth education” hat.

Those of you who read The Farmer’s Pride on a regular basis may know that I recently changed jobs. I am now the executive director of the Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom, a coalition of agriculture community members dedicated to growing agricultural and environmental literacy across the Commonwealth. While I have always been thankful for my work with the Kentucky Corn Growers and Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association members, I know that I will be able to serve a broader audience in my new role.

Over the past several years I have come to realize how important agriculture literacy is during a child’s education. Going beyond “kids need to know where their food comes from,” we are developing the future consumer. Once a person leaves the nest and begins to make their own purchasing decisions, they may have already formed some pretty staunch opinions about the products they want to buy, especially food. It is our job to provide all of the facts and data we have available as early as possible so future decisions can be based more on science and critical thinking rather than emotion.

The challenge is getting this information into the classrooms. We are competing with core content standards testing, one hundred other interest groups that want their materials used, time, and occasionally, strong conflicting views of our educators.

Fortunately, we have a way in. Kentucky public schools are required to offer programs that provide concepts of practical living such as health, nutrition, the evaluation of consumer products and services, and making informed decisions. Vocational studies is another area where we can focus on agriculture (did you know that 1 in 12 jobs in the U.S. is directly related to agriculture?) Students are not tested on these areas, but schools are looking for packaged programs to meet their requirements.

Ways we can further encourage the use of agricultural and environmental-based lessons in schools is to work in additional areas of study such as science, math, technology, engineering, social studies, and language arts. Despite the terrifying task of weeding through the forever changing Kentucky Core Academic Standards, it can be done.

Developing new education programs for classroom use is just one way the Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom can work to develop the informed consumer. We also realize that there are a number of programs, tools, and curricula being used that are still very good, but we will need to tweak them to match the new standards to make them more appealing to our formal educators.

I am so much more relaxed these days. It is tough playing constant defense on so many agricultural subjects. I will definitely continue to go to battle for my farmers when called, but it is great to play a larger part in helping develop opinions about agriculture as opposed to changing them.

If you are interested in learning how you can work with the Kentucky Agriculture & Environment in the Classroom to provide literacy programs in your community, go to our web site at www.teachkyag.org or give me a call at 502-921-2625.