• The average American eats about 68 quarts of popcorn each year.¹
• Bananas are most likely the first fruit ever to be grown on a farm.²
• Americans cumulatively eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second!³
• Americans are eating 900% more broccoli than we did 20 years ago.⁴

How do you define the word agriculture? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that it is the “science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products.” An accurate definition, but this definition doesn’t impart the integral nature or importance of agricultural products—food, clothing, and shelter—in our daily lives. This seemingly simple definition represents a very complex system! 

The milk for your cereal began on a dairy farm just a few days before your breakfast. The dairy farmer relies on veterinarians and animal nutritionists to keep their cattle healthy. The farm may grow their own cattle feed or purchase it from another farm. Employees of the farm care for the cows from calf to adult and milk the cows daily. Truckers haul the milk from the farm to a bottling plant where food scientists test the milk to be sure it is pure and healthy. The milk is homogenized, pasteurized, bottled, and boxed with the help of packaging engineers before it is shipped off to grocery distribution centers, finally making it to your local store and then to your breakfast table. All along the way people work to pay bills, buy and sell supplies, market and advertise the milk, build cooling systems, machinery, and packaging. Scientists investigate the health of dairy cows, the nutritional value and safety of the milk, and more. Grocery staff stock the dairy cases with the gallon jugs and help you bag your groceries. Each step of this farm-to-table process is subject to governmental regulations and is affected by the ups and downs of the global economy. Each step considers its impacts to the environment and must manage the effects of unpredictable weather (Milk Means More, 2018). The path milk takes from cow to cereal bowl is similar to that of many, many other agricultural products, most with many other processing steps to become the food, clothing, fuel, or building products we use every day.  

From crops and livestock grown around the world to climate change, consumer buying preferences, food insecurity, international policy, and technological innovations, agriculture is a very complex topic. While high school students might recognize the ways agriculture provides directly for their food, clothing, and shelter, exploring some of these complexities will help prepare these young adults for making decisions or to prompt the further study of economics, science, or policy. 

Lesson Pedagogy

This lesson uses mind mapping as a way to guide students as they make connections. Mind maps offer a visually organized way to represent information, fostering a deeper understanding of complex topics. They allow learners to structure knowledge hierarchically, simplify intricate concepts, and identify relationships between ideas. By engaging in active creation and association, mind maps enhance memory retention and encourage creative thinking. Their flexibility accommodates diverse learning styles, making them a valuable tool for summarizing, studying, problem-solving, and fostering a holistic view of interconnected concepts, ultimately aiding in effective learning and knowledge integration.

Most often, one single concept is the center of the map with related words or phrases bridging connections between each. To build additional meaning, questions or words of connection should/could be written on the bridges to clarify connections or ask for understanding. This can serve as an assessment tool showing where students have adequate background on a topic, have questions, or show lack of understanding.