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Idaho Enterprise

Agvocating in the Classroom

Feb 28, 2022 01:07PM ● By Allison Eliason

By Allison Eliason

For decades, the number of people employed in the agriculture industry has been in a continuous decline.  Currently, of all employees working in the United States, 10% are involved in agricultural jobs.  Farming and ranching families make up less than 2% of the US population.

The numbers don’t lie.  People are becoming distanced and disconnected with agriculture and, more importantly, disconnected from where their food comes from.  We’ve all heard the jokes about consumers that really believe their milk simply comes from the grocery store and not from cows.  And while we all get a good chuckle out of it, the truth is so many people don’t know or don’t understand where their food comes from.

Agvocates, those that advocate for agriculture, play a key part in helping educate and reconnect people with their food roots.  It's become even more important to advocate for ag as so many controversial voices misconstrue the basic facts about farming and ranching. 

 Mrs. Meaghan Brown Porritt, who grew up in Malad, has found a way to use her role as a teacher to advocate for agriculture in the classroom, helping her fourth grade students at Lewiston Elementary to learn first hand about growing food.  Through trial and error they have learned to grow a variety of plants in greenhouses as well other less traditional means like aquaponics and hydroponics.

 In their classroom sits a fish tank, and atop the tank grow several plants, including basil, alfalfa, Swiss chard, marigolds, and arugula.  The plants are watered and nourished by the tank water, the fishs’ waste serving as fertilizer.  Using hydroponics, the students have grown soybeans, sprouting the seeds in water and then moving them to tubes where they are suspended in a nutrient solution.  Throughout the school year, the students are able to see how plants grow, what sorts of food and fertilizer works best and enjoy the fruits of their labors.  

 Each March, Mrs. Porritt teaches her students about embryology as they incubate chicken eggs donated by local farmers.  Throughout the unit, the students study a chicken’s life cycle, the various breeds and the different ways chickens can produce food, presenting their research to the entire school at the conclusion of the project.  

 Mrs. Porritt connects students to agriculture through her daily challenge questions where she puts out a scenario that farmers and ranchers commonly see and have to find solutions to.  Students see scenarios such as the challenge pig farmers face when trying to keep newborn piglets from being rolled on by farrowing pigs.  The students then use their critical thinking to find their own way to solve the problem and then can compare their answers to producers' solutions.

 The class also participates in an “adopt-a-calf” program where they are “pen pals” with a dairy calf named Daisy in Ohio.  They have learned about life on a dairy farm and the food products that come from the dairy. 

 Mrs. Porritt has noted how this has given some of her other students that are involved with farming and dairies their own opportunities to talk about agriculture.

 “Food is one of the few things all people have in common and it's a great medium to connect kids with each other and with agriculture,” says Mrs. Porritt.  As she incorporates agriculture in all aspects of their learning, whether it's in math, reading, or science, she can see excitement and growth in something that’s important to all of her students.

 Her efforts have recently been acclaimed as she was awarded Utah’s 2022 Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture.  The award is quite competitive with so many teachers brining ag into the classroom but Mrs. Porritt set herself apart by teaching about agriculture daily.  

 Including ag as a part of her students' learning has been easier than she expected.  With so many programs, grants, and curriculum available, the opportunities seem endless.  The greatest asset for Mrs. Porritt has been the Ag in the Classroom program that connects teachers with agriculture ideas, resources and other supplies to try to make things as easy as possible.  

 The goal of Ag in the Classroom is to enable an ag literate population and hopes to meet that goal through connecting kids in the classroom. Through Ag in the Classroom, schools have been able to incorporate large scale projects like beehives and school gardens. They provide different agriculture kits, in class teaching and additional resources to serve every facet and every subject of learning.    

 “Agriculture opens up a world of opportunities for my students,” Mrs. Porritt shared. “When students experience agriculture as the context for learning, students achieve so much because they are invested in their own education.”

 Similar opportunities are available here in our own community.  Mrs. Jennifer Brown, Mrs. Porritt’s mom, has included hydroponics in her own kindergarten classroom.  With the help of Jean Thomas, she has been able to receive grants to purchase everything for their project.  For teachers interested in using Ag in the Classroom, idaho.agclassroom.org, is full of great tools, information, and resources to get started.

 Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we have opportunities to share our experiences with agriculture.  Helping consumers reconnect with their food roots does more than just help them see that milk simply doesn’t just come from the grocery store.  Helping them make that connection helps them better understand how their food is grown, the resources they require and the efforts that farmers and ranchers make for families to put healthy food on the table.