'10x15' effort aims to expand ag education

The Iowa Farmer Today published a good commentary recently that was written by Doug Loudenslager, the chief operating officer for the National FFA Organization and National FFA Foundation.

In the article, he talks about the importance of agriculture education. Yet only about half of America’s 14,000 high schools offer any form of agricultural education. That leaves the other 50 percent "sublimely ignorant of what it takes to produce food and what role they might find for themselves."

Certainly many would agree with Loudenslager's assessment that we have allowed people in this country to become complacent, to simply take for granted the most abundant, safe and affordable food supply in the world. This complacency, he believes, has contributed to a lack of agricultural literacy - as in people literally do not know where their food comes from. It also means fewer students considering ag-based careers at the same time many folks are moving to retirement. Without a new workforce to replace them, where will our food come from?

Here are a few lines from his article:

It’s all too easy for the uninformed to have a negative perception of agricultural education. Some people consider the practice of educating students about production agriculture as a quaint but outdated fixture of rural life. If anything, though, the focus on the future is more prominent today than ever. The National FFA Organization enjoys a 31-year high in membership. There are more than 1 million students enrolled in agricultural education nationwide, which is, contrary to some viewpoints, real science and math education that can lead to a viable, lucrative and necessary career path.

FFA's official membership totals more than 507,000, which, as Loudenslager pointed out, is the most in 31 years. That's great news.

It is also interesting how many non-farm young people are involved in FFA today. Brownfield reported this fall that 27 percent of FFA members live in rural farm areas, 40 percent live in rural non-farm areas and 33 percent are in urban and suburban areas. That means 73 percent of members aren't on farms!

In his article, Loudenslager promotes a "10x15" effort that FFA and other organizations support. The goal is to have 10,000 American high schools with quality agricultural education programs in place by 2015. The focus is on creating new programs in communities not served by agricultural education and FFA, but also to strengthen the quality of existing programs.

Certainly this is a laudable goal...and one that is important for everyone involved in agriculture and food production. Increasing the number of young people who understand agriculture will lead to more young people choosing careers in agriculture. It also means they will better understand the food system in general, making them more knowledgeable adults and life-long consumers.