Fewer children have any contact with agricultural production. A report two years ago for the Primary Industries Education Foundation found that while more than half of Year 6 students had been involved with a school vegetable garden, barely a quarter had stayed on a farm or attended an agricultural show. It is little wonder, then, that 27 per cent thought yoghurt was a plant product and 75 per cent thought that cotton socks came from animals. The longer kids spend at school the more confused they seem to become. In Year 6, 17 per cent thought farming damaged the environment; by Year 10, 40 per cent were convinced that was true. Barely half of Year 10 students believed that pesticides increased the amount of food grown on farms. The National Farmers Federation and other agricultural groups take the survey as evidence that the food and fibre component of the technology curriculum must get back to basics. It seems premature to ask children to "prioritise competing factors in . . . ethical, just and sustainable development", as Gene Ethics submission argues, when only 30 per cent of Year 10 students recognise that cardboard is produced from trees, the same proportion, incidentally, that thinks Lycra comes from plants. Farming was once regarded as a heroic pursuit; it is today viewed with deep suspicion. About 4000 professional positions in primary industry are advertised a year yet there are only 300 new agricultural graduates to fill them. Little wonder.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:53:10 +0000
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