Growing up, I was surrounded by agriculture and always wanted to become more involved. Unfortunately, the resources were not there for me to do so. There was not a strong 4-H program where I grew up, and FFA was cut from the curriculum. I found it strange that I lived in a county that contained so much agriculture, but hardly had any agricultural education programs. As a result, many youth were disconnected from agriculture. I firmly believe it is important that people are educated about agriculture to understand where their food, clothes, and other everyday items come from. After enrolling in college I began volunteering at various agricultural events. I came to enjoy working with children and teaching them about agriculture. My experiences have given me the desire to pursue a career in extension, with the hopes of educating youth and the average consumer about agriculture. My aspiration is to help others develop a greater appreciation for agriculture and its importance in society. Public disconnection from agriculture has created a resistance that stands to undo generations of progress. Most people are not aware that the world population is expected to climb to 9.8 billion people by 2050. To accommodate this growth, 70% more food will need to be produced. I believe this can only be accomplished with further …show more content…
I enjoy problem solving and educating others. Whether helping a farmer devise a forage system or assisting a rancher in selecting cattle breeds, I am more than prepared to handle the task. As a person who also enjoys a challenge, I am drawn to extension for its diversity; every day may bring a different task. One day may include giving a public presentation, the next may be meeting with producers to address a livestock issue, and another day may involve working with 4-H youth at a county
It is one of the most “in” types of food today: organic. After a century of agriculture advancement, many Americans are trying to turn away from food produced by modern farming practices, to naturally and locally produced foods. Meanwhile, across the world, millions in poverty are starving to death. In the past, the way to solve this problem was to give farmers access to modern seed and practices. Yet today, because of its increased unpopularity, this solution is not being pursued. In “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers,” Robert Paarlberg claims that the way to solve world hunger is through modernization. Paarlberg uses convincing statistics, logic, and writing style to back his argument that modern farming practices are the answer to world hunger.
The 4-H pledge provides a foundational understanding of the goals of this more than 100 year-old youth development program. This comprehensive approach to youth development offers young people important developmental opportunities to foster a successful transition to young adulthood. The 4-H Program was created in the late 1890's and early 1900's in response to the need for better agriculture education. The 4-H Program started as an innovative outreach program for the land-grant universities' Cooperative Extension Service. The
The national FFA organization has been a way for young adults to grow and connect with agriculture since 1928 (Bender and Taylor 533). FFA stands for Future Farmers of America, but is most definitely not restricted to “farmers” only. FFA offers many opportunities for any and all members enrolled in a vocational agriculture course to be involved and further their knowledge of various areas even beyond the field of agriculture (Bender and Taylor 1). “FFA at 50 in Missouri” states the FFA motto that has been the foundation of the FFA mentality many years, “Learning to do, Doing to learn, Earning to live, Living to serve” (FFA at 50 in Missouri 8). This motto fits the organization well as it aims to teach members to be successful not only in agriculture
Knowledge is obviously a large part of agriscience education, because that is essentially the career—to extend knowledge about agriculturally related topics to inform and mold the leaders of tomorrow. As a child growing up on a mainly grain farm with a few livestock, my father was always sure to include my siblings and I in his daily tasks, which made me knowledgeable about grain farming and
Food production has many challenges to address: CO2 emissions, which are projected to increase by two-thirds in the next 20 years, as the global food production increases so does the number of people going hungry, with the number of urban hungry soaring. The environmental issues are not the only ones to face; politics and economic globalization take also the big part in the food world. These days agriculture and food politics has been going through many changes but mostly under the influence of its consumers; back in the days people wanted as little as safety, variety and low costs of food. Now consumers demanding way more – greater freshness, nutritional value, less synthetic chemicals, smaller carbon footprint and less harm to animals. And that’s the time when urban agriculture emerged quite rapidly delivering locally grown and healthy food. Within the political arena, there are a few still in charge of defending the conventional food industries and commercial farms to retain the upper level. Against the hopes of nutrition activists, farm animal welfare defenders, and organic food promoters, the food and agriculture sector is moving towards greater consolidation and better sustainability. Although in social and local terms, food-growing activists know their role is under attack. Caught two words in the middle, is it possible to satisfy both?
In order for us to maintain our lives, we need to consume food to supply nutrient-needs for our bodies. As the global population increased, the demand for food also increased. Increased population led to mass production of foods. However, even with this mass production, in under-developed countries, people are still undernourished. On other hand, in developed and developing countries, people are overfed and suffering from obesity. In addition, the current methods of industrial farming destroy the environment. These problems raised a question to our global food system. Will it be able to sustain our increasing global population and the earth? With this question in my mind, I decided to investigate the sustainability of our current global food system.
Agriculture is not all work and no play. Many advances can be made in the understanding of agriculture by making available a variety of methods to provide children with a hands-on experience and also educating all individuals about the importance of the practice. The ignorance of urban communities can be overcome with the help of organizations and people within the community. School visits, hands-on experiences, volunteers and organizations are just a few examples of the steps that can be taken to educate Americans about agriculture and close the gap between rural and urban populations.
Family farms are slowly fading away from the American landscape due to the increasing number of industrialized farms. Yet, there are so many benefits that the family farm brings to the community that it would be foolish to let them slip away. As Americans, we need to do everything we can to support out family farmers because they help the community out in many ways. Everything from local, fresh, produce, to helping keep our land free from chemicals and insecticides are just a few of the tasks they do to help everyone out. Without them, the United States will turn into a place where only few farm, and those who do, farm for an economical motive. America needs the farmer who not only farms for themselves but for the entire community as well.
The developed world’s love affair with local/organic farming (peasant farming as Collier describes it) has decreased food production worldwide because it does not use the land efficiently enough as with commercial agriculture companies. It also requires government subsidies that large commercial farming companies do not necessarily need. By increasing commercial farming, the world food supply will inevitably increase over a short period.
Scientists say that farmers need to produce 50-100 percent more food than they already do now.... ... middle of paper ... ... Chances are farmers aren’t going to pack up everything to adapt to a new farming method that is just too expensive for the farmers.
925 million people are living today without any breakfast, lunch or dinner. Day after day, they starve without any food. The worst part is that we don’t have enough food to feed the world today so how will we be able to feed the world in 2050 if the worlds population is supposed to grow by 7 billion people?! The world’s population will grow from 7 billion to about 9.6 billion by 2050 and food production will have to increase by 70 percent.
Agriculture has always been one of the pillars that our nation’s economy depends upon. As this industry grows and expands agriculture is not just farming. There’s so many different occupations that are involved with the industry that aren’t out in the fields produces food and fiber. With such an evolving industry, education is key to make sure everyone is up to speed with the newest knowledge and technology. Agricultural education, plays a huge role in educating the people within the industry along with people that benefit from it.
The global population in the year 2050 is expected to be nine billion and the agricultural demand is expected to double. With the current population already over seven billion people, there are hunger issues all around the world (“New” par. 1). How are we going to deal with food shortages in the future? With less land to work with, strains on the soils, and the lack of water, it is getting harder for the farmers of the world to support our growing population. These complications are making it harder for farmers to produce quality, affordable food. To help the crops grow better, farmers use fertilizers and chemical sprays to enhance growth and control the weeds. Farming in the United States is a relevant business because it supplies people with food, provides people with jobs maintaining the used equipment with the new equipment being much more expensive, and it provides research for more efficient ways on how to feed the world.
There are those that believe our planet has reached its maximum capacity to sustain humanity and we need to reduce our population to rectify it. It is also said that our planet is well capable of providing both the nutrition and caloric needs for humanity, both now and into the future as well. Regardless of where one’s opinion of the facts fall between these two arguments, global food security is not where it should be. Uneven development could be argued to be a cause of this. But it is not the only issue affecting the planet.
This can not be done with the same ineffective tactics that were used in the past, so that’s why people are developing new ways to eradicate hunger. When the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) was held, they discussed the nutrition component and how important it is that it is not overlooked. By paying attention to nutrient-dense foods and recognizing the different entry points for improving nutrition, the ICN2 argues the world will be one step closer in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal. Some of the entry points they discussed include “the promotion of crop diversification…, strengthening local food production and processing, and exploring regulatory or voluntary instruments for promoting healthy diets” (goals 2). Promoting the nutrition aspect of the goal can help achieve it because nutrients are what keep people alive and