Civic Agriculture: Education for a Civic Society

• In Event: Meanings and Conceptions of Environmental Education

Abstract

Our industrial agricultural system negatively impacts the Earth, greatly contributing to the planetary wide ecological crisis. Environmentalist, scholars, and educational researchers have made solid links between food and educational outcomes. However, these approaches fail to address the underlying problems of our food production methods. This short fall needs to be remedied because the way we grow food affects our relationship with the Earth. This synthesis and meta-analysis of agricultural and environmental educational research dives deeper into the connections between food production, educational outcomes, communal and personal health, and environmental integrity. Schools and communities should understand the cumulative affects of our commodity agricultural system, and consider embracing the civic-minded agricultural techniques practiced by Ecovillagers and Permaculturalists.

Author

• Robert Alan Wight, University of Cincinnati