Finding Out About The Farm

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday August 21, 2007

KATELIN McINERNEY

Students in suburbia are gaining a greater understanding of agriculture, thanks to some hands-on school courses, writes KATELIN McINERNEY.

For most kids living in suburbia, milk comes from a carton - and there's a vague idea a cow might have been involved somewhere.

The state's farmers want school children to have a greater understanding of the importance of agriculture in everyday life.

They are so worried about the growing ignorance of a generation of consumers that they want agriculture taught as a mandatory subject for all school-aged children.

At the annual NSW Farmers' conference in July this year, debate raged over falling enrolments in agriculture courses at universities.

Vice-president Alan Brown said the only way to arrest the decline was to educate students in the system of food production.

"Every day, they depend on a farmer to eat," Mr Brown said.

"What we want to do is push back with a sustainable food and fibre production theme, to better illustrate what agriculture actually does."

Mr Brown said students who engage in agricultural activities found it fascinating.

"We want to take that a step further and re-acquire a place for agriculture in the community because we think agriculture has slipped in its importance," he said.

That slip could be partly attributed to negative press and the poor image of farming in the past few years.

Mr Brown said NSW farmers wanted to show kids the positives and the incredible advances being made in agriculture.

"Kids think that meat comes from a tray at Woolies, and they need to be re-acquainted with the complexity behind that apple they are eating," he said.

Last week the federal Labor Party announced that, if it wins the next election, $12.8 million would be spent to run a pilot program for primary school children which would involve growing, harvesting and cooking produce students had grown themselves as part of a bid to tackle childhood obesity.

There have also been a number of creative initiatives implemented across the Illawarra to raise awareness of the importance of agriculture and the opportunities the industry offers students.

The dairy industry has led the way with its innovative Cows Create Careers program, which used a pair of calves to educate students about dairying.

Students worked in teams to care for and feed the calves, weighing them, monitoring their condition and keeping an accurate chart of their growth and development.

As part of the program, students also researched aspects of calf care including rearing, nutrition, management, breeding and genetics.

Dairy NSW ambassador Lynne Strong said students not only enjoyed the experience but it also gave them a better understanding of the broad range of careers available in dairying.

The high school program was rated such a success that a primary school art competition based on making dairies more environmentally friendly is in the pipeline.

Corrimal High School agriculture teacher Tanya Mans believes agriculture should be compulsory for all high school students.

Ms Mans said not only was the subject fun, students gained hands-on experience and a valuable insight into "the bigger issues".

"For the little ones, it is nice for them just to get an idea that they can grow potatoes and spinach in their backyard, but as they get older we start looking at things like cloning and genetically modified food crops," she said.

Agriculture is compulsory for all Year 7 and 8 students at Corrimal as part of their design and technology course, and the school has a brood of chickens, a flock of sheep and a cow named Milo.

The school has had an "ag plot" for more than 20 years.

Ms Mans said experiences like taking a chick home overnight helped city kids understand the responsibility involved in caring for another living thing.

"They come back the next day and can't believe how much noise one little baby chicken can make," she said.

Ms Mans said the basic farming experience of raising chickens also helped city kids understand the natural cycle of life, bringing them face-to-face with the deeper and more difficult issues like and death.

"They find out that birds have a 6 per cent mortality rate in the wild and that gives them a real insight into the way nature works, something city slickers don't often get," she said.

When the school rescued a flock of battery hens, Ms Mans said that really opened students eyes to the realities of food production.

"When the battery hens arrived they looked unhealthy, but they have a good life here and it is a big thing for students to see chickens like that," she said.

In an age where issues like food responsibility, carbon emissions and childhood obesity need to be addressed, Ms Mans said studying agriculture was even more important for students in suburban schools.

"They don't understand where their chicken fillets come from," she said.

"Most kids are completely ignorant of the processes involved in the production of meat, eggs and milk - agriculture teaches them that."

Apart from animal care, agriculture students also learned how to make compost, raise seedlings and harvest crops.

"Kids actually try fresh produce here," Ms Mans said.

"They are exposed to different things that they possibly haven't wanted to try before and they often say 'oh, that is not so bad', things like spinach and broccoli which they won't eat at home."

The ag plot at Lake Illawarra High School is smaller than its counterpart at Corrimal, but there is still plenty going on inside the enclosure.

Students tip-toe through the chicken coop, made slippery by the drizzling rain, and dig around in the straw looking for eggs.

Agriculture teacher David Friels said the school would like to expand the agriculture program.

"We'd really like to do a lot more, with crops and fruit trees and we'd like to have sheep and goats, but we simply don't have the space," he said.

The subject is offered every second year at Lake Illawarra, and it usually attracted enough students to get a class.

Students have a farm excursion every term.

So far this year the class had been to the Royal Easter Show and he was hoping to take the students to a working dairy in Gerringong.

Agriculture student Kristina Willoughby said her love of nature and the outdoors led her to take the subject.

"It is a good subject because you learn about stuff in the classroom then get to go out and do it all," she said.

Learning how to raise plants from seed had been a learning curve for Kristina and her classmates.

She said before she started the subject she hadn't realised how much work went into growing vegetables.

"I reckon all kids should do ag because you learn so much about nature and that things happen for a reason," she said.

"I'm slowly getting stuff happening at home and I'm sure it'll still be a hobby later on."

Jillie Whitehead is a girl from the suburbs who fell in love with the Australian outback, enrolled in an agricultural college and has not looked back.

The former Figtree High School student said she thought she had always had an interest in agriculture because her family came from the land.

Figtree High School did not offer agriculture as a subject, so the keen student pursued horticulture at TAFE NSW Illawarra Institute's Yallah campus.

After Year 12, Jillie enrolled at Tocal College in the Hunter Valley, which is run by the NSW Department of Agriculture and Primary Industries, and is studying towards her Certificate IV in agriculture.

"It is a really good base because it gives you a little bit of everything and you're not going out to work 100 per cent blind. You know how to fix a fence and test soil," she said.

She said the course was especially good for city slickers like herself who knew a little bit about farm life but had not spent much time on the land.

She said advances in technology and farming practices made agriculture an exciting field in which to work.

"They are using GPS (global positioning systems) to control stock now," she said.

"So many smart people with different views on the industry are making their way into agriculture and the gender balance is beginning to tip the other way."

The traditional image of farming as a male-dominated industry was changing rapidly thanks to breakthroughs in technology and science by female researchers and students like Jillie who were searching for something different.

"The average age of farmers is about 55-60, so there will be lots of opportunities for new ways of thinking and doing things," she said.

"The next generation of farmers are going to have to be a lot more flexible than older generations and the lack of people going out west meant there are plenty of opportunities out there for new and young people. You just have to think smart."

She believed that students on the coast did not really understand the plethora of opportunities agriculture offered students and believed the course should be mandatory in schools.

"I honestly think it'd engage a lot more people in to agricultural industry," she said.

"It is hard work and these days everyone is looking for the quick fix and the easy money. But it is interesting and there are so many people stuck in their tiny little offices and I have this big office outside with gorgeous paddocks and fresh air, every day."

Where to look

NSW Farmers Association - www.nswfarmers.org.au

Tocal College - www.tocal.nsw.edu.au/reader/tocal-college

NSW Dept Primary Industries - www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture

Australian Government Agricultural Portal - www.agriculture.gov.au

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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