Toxics, food safety, water quality “most important”: How California educators and CE directors view “agricultural literacy” programs

Agricultural literacy programs —now underway in a few California schools — are designed to provide students with a fundamental understanding of how our agricultural system works, including its relationship to natural resources and the environment. In statewide surveys, public school administrators and CE county directors agreed such programs should be incorporated into science or social studies classes during late elementary and middle grades. District administrators identified the most important topics to be toxics in the environment, toxics in the food supply, and water quality and policy.

Groups surveyed expressed differing opinions, however, about the plant Of teaching the topic in schools.