The USDA Future Scientists Urban Agriculture Program

The decisions that are made today about the future of agriculture are critical. Over the next 50 years there will need to be produced as much food as has previously been produced in recorded history. This will only happen if students enter science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics (STEAM) fields. Only about 1/32 of the Earth’s surface is suitable for farming. Water resources are being used at unsustainable rates. The students of today are going to have to solve and ameliorate these problems and many more as adults. However, the majority of these students live in urban environments with little to no idea of the source of their food. Students need to understand the complexity of the living world and to study the functions and processes of organisms and how they interact in and with the environment. The USDA Future Scientists Urban Agriculture Program, established in 2009, is a way to make that connection by having them study and research in a USDA People’s Garden and then to develop their own garden at their school and, perhaps, at their homes. It is helping many of them to expand their sense of future science career options and to see Agricultural Science as moving beyond manual labor and the harvesting of crops from the field and into advanced research.