Editor’s note: This is Part IV of a five-part solutions journalism series exploring the future of farming in north central Ohio. Part I published on Jan. 31. Part II published on Feb. 1. Part III published on Feb. 2.
As fewer students in north central Ohio grow up on farms, several educators have altered their teaching focus.
Educators in Knox, Ashland and Richland county still teach vocational skills, but also strive to create informed consumers. They are also encouraging more open conversation about the industry’s hardships, such as mental health struggles.
The re-evaluation of agriculture education also extends beyond the brick and mortar, as young producers are diversifying operations and finding ways to build a sustainable future.
Teaching to the students in front of them
The farming tradition is entrenched in the history of villages in north central Ohio, such as Fredericktown, home of the Future Farmers of America jacket. But Fredericktown agriculture teacher Debra Burden said it has become increasingly common throughout her 11 years with the district for her class to be a student’s first introduction to agriculture.
Overall, Burden said she’s seeing fewer students with a background in production agriculture and family farming. Educators from other districts have noticed similar trends.
“My goal with ag education is to serve the students that are in front of me, and currently those students are going to be more of a consumer than a producer,” Mount Vernon agriculture teacher Stephanie Plumly said.
Plumly grew up on her family’s farm in Mount Vernon, a background no longer routinely shared by her students. Her teaching reflects that change.
“As an example, maybe instead of spending more time teaching students how to feed a steer, we’re teaching students how to select quality meat products from the brochure,” she explained.
Food Science and Technology Career Development Event Example
Danville agriculture teacher Rebecca McCarty is roughly halfway through her first year as an educator. Educating consumers is similarly a top priority in her classroom.
She recently taught animal marketing to her sophomore class, and they spent time reviewing food labels for animal and crop products.
“Now, when they get out there and they’re buying their own groceries, they understand what they’re buying,” McCarty said.
Similarly, Clear Fork middle school agriculture teacher Samantha Kline has done lessons about food labels. For Kline, a recent focus has been antibiotics in beef production and how food can be marketed to sway or deceive consumers.
“That’s my biggest push,” Kline said of consumer education. “Even though they may not be a farmer or work in ag, they 100% will be a consumer.”
Ashley Sherman, an agriculture teacher in the Mapleton Local Schools district, said a common misconception she hears is that someone has to be pursing a career in agriculture to take agriculture classes.
“I push my ag classes, especially at the beginner level, to all kids because it helps them become a better consumer,” Sherman said.
Agriculture educators in the region are increasingly focusing on the broad applications of an agriculture education to everyday life. For example, Ashland City School’s horticulture teacher Tod Fox teaches skills such as small-engine repair and how to change tires.
Centerburg agriculture teacher Matt Weade said of the 124 students he currently teaches, just a handful grew up on family farms and are likely to pursue agriculture production.
“When I was in school we used to call it ‘sows, plows and cows,'” Weade said about the FFA program and agriculture education writ large. “We don’t talk about ‘sows, cows and plows’ anymore.”
Instead, Weade focuses on teaching students agriculture-related skills they can use every day.
“Trying to teach them the cooking process, where their food comes from, I don’t teach any row crop stuff anymore,” Meade said. “Growing 1,000 acres of corn, the only kids who would be listening to that are the ones who know more about it than I do.”
Weade and other educators in the region also emphasized a growing interest in the science of agriculture.
“As a trend, you’re seeing a massive shift towards science,” Mapleton’s agriculture teacher Ashley Sherman agreed. “I teach a ton of biology, and I teach a ton of content that overlaps with earth science and biological sciences.”
East Knox high school agriculture teacher Tom Holton, who is in his 40th year as an agriculture teacher, said regardless of the careers his students pursue, he thinks agriculture education is beneficial, specifically noting public speaking and leadership opportunities.
“What do I want them to get out of it? I just hope that they learn some things that will be useful and helpful to them throughout their life,” Holton said. “That’s really what I hope, and if it evolves into a career, better yet.”
Fighting stigma and stereotype
Teaching the next generation of agriculture professionals is giving them the tools they need to succeed — but McCarty of Danville explained those tools are more than traditional course topics such as animal science or even consumer insights.
“It’s an extremely high-stress job,” McCarty said. “It’s one of the most stressful jobs and mental health is not necessarily very good in it. So, I stress to the kids (to) reach out when something goes wrong, don’t just deal with everything yourself.”
Producing food can be a lonely venture. Knox County grain farmer Ed Piar knows from personal experience.
Specifically, Piar has at times felt isolated on his farm due to the lack of broadband infrastructure. Bresco installed a satellite on top of Piar’s grain elevator a few years back. While it serves about a 10- to 15-mile radius, however trees often disrupt the signal and the speed only gets up to 25 Mbps.
The ongoing pandemic and the geographic distance between his farmland and the city center adds another layer of isolation, Piar added.
In addition to discussing the stigma surrounding mental health, north central Ohio educators said stereotypical perceptions of farmers are still playing catch up with the reality of the profession today.
Stephanie Plumly, Mount Vernon’s agriculture teacher, said a common misconception she hears is that agriculture professions are “old school.”
But, similar to many industries, technological advancements have expanded agriculture and many positions may now require and/or benefit from formal training.
Compared to when Plumly was a student in Mount Vernon, it has become more common for students to pursue higher education to enter agriculture.
“I think the students need to be aware of how high-tech agriculture can be because the stereotype is that it’s not a technological-type career, but it very much so is,” Plumly said.
Weade, from Centerburg, said he thinks locals understand the agriculture program is not solely for future farmers, but misconceptions arise as people move in from places such Sunbury and Columbus.
“I always joke, I’m still called a vo-ag teacher, but it hasn’t been vo-ag since the ’90s,” Weade said. “I’m not a vocational teacher. I teach agriculture education. That’s just kind of a funny uphill battle.
“But it’s not like it used to be, where it was only for guys, it was only for farming and you had to be that farm kid.”
Fox, from Ashland City Schools, said student involvement in his program has grown in recent years, specifically from 27 students five years ago to about 180 today. Ashland started FFA programming in eighth grade last year, and Fox thinks this earlier exposure has had a part in the growth.
“After those eighth graders came in, you know, just once they started talking to their friends and then they got to do it, then our numbers have really increased,” Fox explained, adding that as the program grows he is working to provide more classes to showcase a broader variety of career options.
“There’s an old wives’ tale about FFA — that you’re not cool for being in it,” Fox explained. “I think it’s the greatest thing.”
Embracing change as a prerequisite for success
Young agriculture professionals are reshaping the bounds of their profession not simply because of changing interests but to ensure a sustainable future.
Leaders of Young Ag Professionals chapters and insurance agents in the region said young producers are diversifying their operations to make ends meet.
Throughout her decade working with YAP thus far, Knox County YAP action team leader Ashton Walls has seen changes to the demographic she serves. Notably, many members are involved with agriculture in more tangential ways.
Some members are getting involved through hobby farming — small-scale farming maintained without the expectation of being a primary source of income.
This is reflected in the country as a whole, too. Farming is not the sole profession of most young farmers, according to the latest 2017 Census data. Roughly two thirds of young farmers in the census listed another occupation as their primary occupation.
Walls also noted the next generation is planning for uncertainty. The young farmers she works with through YAP have increasingly expressed interest in wanting to diversify their operations — ranging from wine making and growing hops for breweries to beekeeping.
“So, not just your traditional row crops and livestock,” Walls said. “I would say with livestock, there’s been a lot of interest in more specialized areas of it, folks trying to raise products that are maybe specific to certain ethnicities and the greater metropolitan market, things like that.”
Noel Alden, who runs a dairy cattle operation with his wife in Danville, has tried to find a niche market. Alden was in discussion with Kenyon College to supply milk for the college, as well as some other nearby universities — although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the deal on hold.
Larry Hall, farmer and former OSU Extension educator in Knox County, thinks the success of local operations is going to be selling locally, which is a model he personally favors.
“Every year after the fair, I contact one of my former 4-H-ers and I buy beef from her to put in my freezer, rather than going and buying retail,” Hall said. “The cost has gone so high in the retail.
“It’s much better to deal with a private individual that’s raising the animal, and I know that the animal is being raised right.”
John Ball, an insurance agent from Danville, also does risk management and advising for his clients, which are primarily farm accounts.
Agriculture is an inherently risky business, Ball said, but throughout recent years his base has adapted operations to keep pace with increasingly uncertain conditions.
For example, Ball has increasingly insured more chicken barns on farm operations that are otherwise focused on grain production.
“You can have a grain operation, but you need to supplement your income somehow because the grain market is so volatile,” Ball said. “(Farmers) have to be diversified in order to stay relevant.
“That’s changed in the last five to 10 years.”
The next generation’s farms are likely to look and operate differently.
These changes have already been seen between current farmers and generations before them. For instance, Hall’s father first bought their family farm in 1946, he did not have tractors.
“(My father) farmed with horses and mules until 1949,” Hall said.
Another farmer in Fredericktown, Jim Braddock, said his father had also farmed using horses when starting out.
The timeline for major technological advances in the industry is ever shrinking. Between Piar, the Knox County grain farmer, and his late father’s generation, Piar has seen the addition of crop monitoring software and field productivity maps on tractors, technology he thinks his father would likely be hard-pressed to recognize today.
In years to come, the same may be true for himself, Piar said.
“I don’t think we’re going to snap our fingers and have twice as many new farmers in the next five years,” Piar said. “But the new farmers who do come up, who do put the effort in to be a farmer, technology will let them farm more acres with less people.”
Braddock said he now spends more time at a desk than on a tractor — a testament to technology increasing productivity and decreasing some of the hours manual-labor farming requires.
“The people that succeed in agriculture are the people that grow with technology,” Braddock said. “They grow with the difference in society.”
Next: The next generation is expanding the breadth of the farming tradition, pursuing agriculture-related careers beyond working farmland.
