ISHS Acta Horticulturae 350: I International Symposium on Education and Training in Horticulture
PLANT PROTECTION AND SCHOOLS - A JUGGLING ACT |
| Author: | R. Trow-Smith |
| Abstract:
The Three-Minute Sound-byte on TV has spelt the beginning of the end to reasoned, informed and balanced debate on any controversial topic. The pesticide and food industries should know; their spokespeople have found themselves on the other side of the microphone from committed, articulate campaigners, expected by hostile interviewers to defend their industries' actions while vainly trying to rebut half-truths and innuendos, all in 15 seconds flat. The crop protection business is getting better at handling such interviews but we still have a long way to go. Why? Because we still have to contend with the fact that the Great British Listener or Viewer has precious little knowledge about modern food production. Without that knowledge he or she has no personal reference points from which to judge the validity of the quick-fire arguments and counter-arguments raging on the TV screen. Now remote from modern farming, he or she cannot weigh up the very apparent benefits of loaded supermarket shelves against the hyped-up risks to food safety. They are at the mercy of the opinion-formers. One key group in our society is especially influenced by the Three-Minute Sound-Byte and that is young people. They form strong, often unshakeable opinions while still at school. Witness the large numbers who now claim to be vegetarian. Increasingly they have become the target of the campaigning groups with very heavy promotions of special schools packs. The animal welfare groups, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Worldwide Fund for Nature … all have successfully entered the classroom. Teachers, while under the same opinion-forming pressures as everyone else, have recognised their role to provide balanced information in the classroom. Their difficulty, expressed in surveys done by British Agrochemicals Association (BAA), is that they do not have many teaching resources about food production or pesticides relevant to the new National Curriculum, nor do they have training in how to teach controversial issues. As food production and controversial issues are both areas they are required to cover at all age groups, they are urgently seeking resources. If they cannot find them, they can only draw their information from the media and from the packs offered by the concern groups. They told us in the surveys that they want to have our side of the story so that pupils have the chance to investigate and debate the food topics fully. BAA has responded with a suite of teaching resources which progress from the age of 5 through all the ages to an A Level project. It culminates with a module for use in teacher training colleges. Before BAA began any work on the actual teaching resources, it retained an education agency to review all possible classroom materials for teaching about crop production and protection such as books, leaflets, videos and slide packs. What was in use? What did the teachers think of the resources? What would they like? Where were the gaps? | |
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