Farms Leadership Program

Recent Happenings In Farms

Fresno Teens Visit the Coastal Redwoods (PDF download, 764 KB)
Sonoma FARMS Students Build Boxes for Birds (PDF download, 504 KB)

About Farms

The FARMS Leadership Program cultivates a meaningful connection between students and their environments by introducing them to environmentally sound agricultural practices that preserve land and resources for future generations. It places students in agricultural settings in their communities where they experience the relevance of basic environmental and agricultural sciences. The program gives high school students the tools to think critically about these issues. CLBL programs currently serve 2,000 high school students a year, and the demand is growing.

Why The Farms Program Is Needed

"For most youngsters, farmers are like unicorns — they know what one looks like, they've just never seen one."

— Janet Brown, organic farmer and educator

• Where does our food come from?
• What happens when we pave over farmland?
• Can I really make a living as a farmer?
• Why are wetlands important?

Very few high school students can answer these questions, yet within a few years they'll be voting citizens in communities where these questions will have to be answered.

The FARMS Leadership Program was created to teach the next generation about the cause and effect relationship between agricultural practices and the environment, and to create connections with the land that our youth so desperately need. FARMS also introduces high school students to the resources and networks that can lead to careers in sustainable agriculture or related environmental sciences.

The FARMS Leadership Program contributes to adolescent development by meeting the four competencies youth need to develop intellectually, emotionally and socially. (Identified by the report from the National Research Council titled “Community Programs to Promote Youth Development.” — www.nap.edu/catalog/10022.html)

1. Building skills and mastery
2. Contributing to their community and developing a sense that they matter
3. Learning to form close, durable relationships with contemporaries from different backgrounds that will support healthy relationship with adults
4. Making decisions, participating in governance and rule-making and taking on leadership

California produces more agricultural products than any other state. California's agricultural producers received $31.8 billion for their products in 2004.

As local governments grapple with land use decisions involving farmland, their citizens are increasingly alienated from understanding agriculture and its role in the economy. Development pressures are intense.

How can we manage the state's population increase of 560,000 people every year without losing some of the world's most productive farmlands? Environmentally informed citizens and community leaders will be key to sound long-term solutions. This begins with youth.

How The Farm Program Works

At the start of the school year in areas throughout California, we work with high schools to select 30 students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds to participate in the yearlong program.

Students attend monthly field days during which they work with — and learn from — a mix of farmers, ranchers, teachers, agricultural business owners, environmental professionals, academics and researchers in a curriculum tailored for their region. Students identify and complete a Community Action Project by the end of the school year.

The FARMS curriculum presents agriculture as an activity within a defined environmental system. Students examine how agriculture affects the natural resources within that system, including the watershed, wildlife, vegetation, soil conditions, and air quality.

Students are encouraged to carefully consider the cultural and social needs that drive agricultural practices, and the consequences of specific choices in food production. The curriculum encourages students to understand the concept of environmental equilibrium.

FARMS staff and mentors introduce the concept of habitat connectivity to demonstrate the logic behind integrated resource management systems for irrigation, pest control and fertilization. This is all considered key to moving toward productive agriculture that is environmentally sustainable over the long term.

Impact

Student evaluations from our graduates tell us that:

• FARMS graduates learn the skills to think and act differently. As they become adults, they're better prepared to make critical choices and decisions.
• FARMS graduates are encouraged to continue their studies in college. They have toured campuses, met professors and instructors, spoken individually with farmers and agricultural business people, and learned about internships, work study and summer jobs.
• FARMS graduates learn to express themselves, speak out, take charge, and work cooperatively with people who are different from themselves. For most FARMS participants, this is the first time they have had an extended, cooperative relationship with contemporaries not from their own background.

California benefits from these future adults and leaders who are prepared with knowledge about agriculture and the environment and the skills to make measured, informed decisions to support healthy communities.

Learn/Do More

Click this link if you are curious about bringing the FARMS Leadership Program to your school or want to know more.

Take a "virtual tour" of FARMS Leadership Program sites throughout the state:

Click here to read articles about FARMS.

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