What is agriculture literacy? Agriculture literacy is the true knowledge and understanding of agriculture. What does agriculture illiteracy mean? Agriculture illiteracy is the failure to understand how important agriculture is and how dependent we all are on it.

Most Americans know very little about agriculture and its value in their daily lives. Agriculture Illiteracy is one of the top twenty illiteracies in our country today. Many people are never informed of the importance that agriculture has and agriculture is entirely too important to be ignored. People need to be informed and need to understand how important agriculture is. If we informed more people about agriculture it would open them up to many of the following opportunities:

  • People could make healthier diet choices if they knew about agriculture and nutrition.
  •  They would be informed of many job opportunities: farm production, agribusiness management and marketing, agricultural research and engineering, food science, processing and retailing, banking, education, landscape architecture, urban planning, energy, etc.
  • They would more clearly understand where their food comes from and how it gets from the farm to the fork. 
  • It would also open them up to so many other opportunities.

If this agriculture illiteracy increases then we could see a decrease in farmers and in crop production in the future which will eventually lead to rising prices on products that rely on agriculture. That would be exceptionally devastating to our country. I believe that all students should be informed in some way about agriculture beginning in kindergarten and lasting until their senior year. People need to be informed about agriculture. One of my goals as an agriculture blogger and FFA member is to promote Ag Literacy and help decrease Ag Illiteracy by informing others about agriculture through this blog. I encourage you to tell others about agriculture and promote Ag Literacy.