Educating today’s students about the importance of California agriculture is critically important to protecting the future of farming and ranching in the Golden State. For nearly 40 years, the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom has been a leader in that effort and is continuing to innovate to meet the needs of California classrooms.

“We’ve been around since 1986, and our whole mission is to support teachers and students in incorporating agriculture into their classroom because agriculture affects our daily lives. It’s the food we eat; it’s the clothes we wear – it affects everything that we do,” said Amanda Fletcher, the Foundation’s executive director.

During 2024, Fletcher said the Foundation’s programs reached over 1 million pre-K to high school students by engaging more than 34,000 teachers across California. Among the Foundation’s most-used resources was the 22^nd annual issue of What’s Growin’ On, a 16-page interactive student newspaper funded in part by Farm Credit. More than 100,000 copies were distributed.

Kevin Ralph, California President for AgWest Farm Credit, said California’s Farm Credit organizations have supported the Foundation’s work for many years.

“Farm Credit has been proud to support What’s Growin’ On for more than 15 years – and in fact increased our support this year – because it’s proven to be an innovative and effective way of educating third through eighth graders about all the aspects of California agriculture,” Ralph said.

Jacob DeBoer, Regional Marketing Manager with American AgCredit, agreed that the Foundation continues to do great work.

“What makes the Foundation’s efforts so successful is that it comes up with ways to really reach students,” DeBoer said. “This year, the theme is ‘Imagine Your Future in Agriculture,’ which is especially important given the need to attract students to consider careers in ag-related fields. Besides information about farming, the newspaper and other programs discuss careers in fields including tech, marketing, soil science and ag mechanics. There’s nothing like drones to capture a young student’s imagination.”

All seven Farm Credit organizations serving California – AgWest Farm Credit, American AgCredit, CoBank, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit, Fresno Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit and Yosemite Farm Credit – are financially supporting the Foundation’s work. They are all part of the nationwide Farm Credit System – the largest provider of credit to U.S. agriculture.

Fletcher said the Foundation got its start in 1981 as a program launched by the California Farm Bureau Federation. It was spun off five years later as an affiliated 501c3 nonprofit. Today, seven – soon to be eight – employees develop age-appropriate curricula using a wide range of distribution methods.

For example, a popular part of the program is the virtual California Farm Day. This year, 31,000 students watched one of two age-appropriate, hour-long programs including video and live Q&A sessions with ag experts. One segment showed a pest advisor walking through a broccoli field examining plants for insects. He explained that some insects were beneficial, and others weren’t, and he talked about the steps he took to become a pest advisor.

“We had over 800 questions asked of the live hosts. A lot of the kids who were on that broadcast were from urban and more disadvantaged schools who don’t always have the ability to go on field trips, so this offered a little window into agriculture and how it affects their lives,” she said.

“We probably work with 60% urban classes and 40% from the agricultural areas. Our target demographic is those urban and disadvantaged schools because we want to get into schools in L.A. and the Bay Area to make sure they're getting the same education about agriculture that students in counties that have that rich agriculture history have access to.”

This year, a grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture allowed the Foundation to develop an interactive website called KnowinWhatsGrowin.com. Fletcher said it matches the state’s fourth-grade curriculum and focuses on specialty crops grown in different parts of the state.

Santa Clara County students can learn about mushrooms, for example – how they’re grown and harvested, nutritional information, products that use mushrooms and even recipes.

Because the Foundation strives “to keep growing, because if you stay stagnant that doesn’t work when the goal is to get the information out to the populace,” the staff is currently beginning a four-year project to develop a monthly curriculum for high school students that outlines ag-related careers. The lesson plans will tie into math, science and ag mechanics.

“Then we are going to be working on developing an internship program that will go along with that. It’ll be exciting in the next couple of years once that gets off the ground,” she said.

“We want to create materials that are easy and quick for teachers to implement so they have good programming for their students and to make sure that the next generation is informed about where their food and fiber comes from.”

About Farm Credit:

AgWest Farm Credit, American AgCredit, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit, CoBank, Fresno Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit and Yosemite Farm Credit are cooperatively owned lending institutions providing agriculture and rural communities with a dependable source of credit. For more than 100 years, the Farm Credit System has specialized in financing farmers, ranchers, farmer-owned cooperatives, rural utilities and agribusinesses. Farm Credit offers a broad range of loan products and financial services, including long-term real estate loans, operating lines of credit, equipment and facility loans, cash management and appraisal and leasing services…everything a “growing” business needs. For more information, visit www.farmcreditalliance.com.

About the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom:

California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to increasing agricultural awareness and understanding among California’s educators and students. AITC develops accurate, teacher-tested educational materials, provides training and programs for educators, and collaborates with organizations to highlight the importance of agriculture in daily life. Through initiatives such as comprehensive lesson plans, the What’s Growin’ On? student newspaper, the Imagine this… writing contest, Virtual Farm Day, the annual teacher conference, and many more programs, AITC fosters agricultural literacy and supports the future of agriculture – impacting over 1 million students annually. For more information, visitwww.learnaboutag.org.