Addressing the inclusion of agriculture in current K-12 standards and curricula would be the focus of a task force proposed by a bill heard Jan. 31 by the Agriculture Committee.<\/p>\n
LB884, introduced by Cedar Rapids Sen. Kate Sullivan, would establish the Agricultural Literacy Task Force. Sullivan said students need to have a thorough understanding of agriculture\u2019s impact on their daily lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgriculture is much too important to our state to only be taught to a small number of students who may already be considering agricultural careers,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n
The seven-person panel would evaluate current standards and curricula and provide a report of recommendations to the Legislature. The task force would be dissembled on December 31, 2012.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the bill cited an increasing disconnect between producers and consumers. Ellen Hellerich, former Nebraska Agriculture in the Classroom coordinator, said the availability of food in the United States has contributed to the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pay less than 10 percent of our income on food, the lowest in the world,\u201d Hellerich said. \u201cMost people have no idea where their food comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Halstead, representing the Nebraska Department of Education, testified in opposition, saying there is no need to create a task force. He suggested proponents of the bill work with the department during the standards revision process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork with us to integrate this into our standards,\u201d Halstead said. \u201cWhy create another task force?\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Addressing the inclusion of agriculture in current K-12 standards and curricula would be the focus of a task force proposed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-5993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-sen-kate-sullivan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5993"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10026,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993\/revisions\/10026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}