Background Agricultural Connections
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Growing a Nation: Playing by the Rules uses the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework's Inquiry Arc as a blueprint to lead students through an investigation of how government agricultural programs and policies impact American families and communities. The Inquiry Arc consists of four dimensions of informed inquiry in social studies:
- Developing questions and planning inquiries;
- Applying disciplinary concepts and tools;
- Evaluating sources and using evidence;
- Communicating conclusions and taking informed action.
The four dimensions of the C3 Framework center on the use of questions to spark curiosity, guide instruction, deepen investigations, acquire rigorous content, and apply knowledge and ideas in real world settings to become active and engaged citizens in the 21st century.6 For more information about the C3 Framework, visit socialstudies.org.
C3 Table- Growing a Nation Era 5b: Playing by the Rules |
Playing by the Rules (2001-present)
Playing by the Rules (2001-present) is the fifth story event in the Growing a Nation online interactive timeline. The timeline provides a chronological presentation of significant historical events focusing on the important role agriculture has played in America's development. Growing a Nation uses a graphic organizer (timeline) and online multimedia resources to bring depth and meaning to historical events. The interactive timeline and lesson plans merge seamlessly with existing American history textbooks and high school history curricula.
Our country has witnessed sweeping changes—from the untamed wild times of Buffalo Bill to the technological era of Bill Gates and Elon Musk—but food has never lost its central role in our lives. Food not only sustains life but also enriches us in many ways. It warms us on cold, dreary days, entices us with its many aromas, and provides endless variety to the everyday world.
Food is also woven into the fabric of our Nation, our culture, our institutions, and our families. Food is on the scene when we celebrate and when we mourn. We use it for camaraderie, as a gift, and as a reward. We are all aware of how food has changed. What Americans often forget, however, is the remarkable system that delivers to us the most abundant, reasonably priced, and safest food in the world. The American food system—from the farmer to the consumer—is a series of interconnected parts. The farmer produces the food, the processors work their magic, and the wholesalers and retailers deliver the products to consumers, whose choices send market signals back through the system.
Iterations or versions of the farm bill have existed since during the Great Depression in 1933 (The National Agricultural Law Center. n.d.). The most current version of the farm bill was passed in 2018 and it includes programs for income support, food and nutrition, land conservation, trade promotion, rural development, research, forestry, horticulture, and other additional programs overseen by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) (H.R. 2 (115th): Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, 2018).
- Activity 1 encourages students to explore what agricultural programs, laws, and policies have existed over time and how each has impacted American agriculture throughout American history including impacts to culture, society, community, economics, and geography.
- Activity 2 invites students to examine farm bills enacted within the last decade to see what issues have come to the forefront in agricultural policy.
- Activity 3 asks the students to focus on agricultural issues from 2001-Present and construct the next iteration of the farm bill to assist in moving agriculture into the future.
- Activity 4 brings the students together to share their learning through persuading their classmates to support their version of the farm bill. Also included in Activity 4 is a time for the class as a whole to come together and construct a class farm bill.
