Grade Level: 6-8
Subject: Language Arts
(6-8) LA: 5.1, 5.2, 5.4-8, 6.1-3, 6.7, 7.5-8

Theme: Environment

Food and Fiber Standards: I-B, E; II-A, E; III-B, C, D; IV-C

Learner Objective:
Students will identify cause and effect relationships in agricultural and environmental issues.

Vocabulary:
Chemical Fertilizers- In organic materials, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds, spread on or worked into soil to increase its fertility.

Contour- Field Operations, such as plowing or planting at right angles to the natural slope, used to reduce soil erosion, protect soil fertility, and conserve water.

Dust Bowl- Part of the Great Plains region of the U.S. which is subject to severe drought.

Ecosystem- An ecological community together with its environment, functioning as a unit.

Environment- The total of all external conditions which act upon an organism or a community of organisms to influence development or existence.

Erosion- The wearing or carrying away of the surface from the earth, usually by wind or water.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)- Approach to pest management, incorporating all available techniques for managing the pest to reduce economic damage and minimize potential adverse side effects.

Legume- A family that uses symbiotic bacteria to convert nitrogen from the air to build up nitrogen in the soil. Legumes include peas, beans, peanuts, clover, and alfalfa.

Nitrogen- Naturally occurring gas in the air and soil.

Nutrients- Element or compounds in the soil which are essential for plant growth.

Overgrazing- Grazing lands so heavily that the soil will no longer produce plants.

Pesticides- Substance used to control insect, plant, or animal pests.

Resources- The available means for producing food and fiber, including land, labor, and capital.

Rotate- To plant or grow crops in a fixed order of succession.

Terraces- Ridges of soil built across the slope to slow the runoff of water in a fields or pasture.

Topsoil- Fertile upper layer of soil which is rich in organic matter.

Underground Water Supply- Fresh water from an underground aquifers, which provide water to wells.

Vegetation- The plants of an area or region; plant life.

Winter Wheat- Wheat that is planted in the fall, survives the winter as a young seedling, and matures in the early summer of the following year.

Background:
Farmers care about the environment. The land is their livelihood. Most people, farmers included, try to avoid practices that might harm or destroy their way of life. Despite this fact, agriculture is blamed for many environmental problems.

People began polluting long before they knew they were polluting. Early settlers in this country dumped their trash into rivers and streams without considering the harm it might do. Before gasoline powered tractors began releasing exhaust fumes into the rural countryside, workhorses were creating pollution problems of their own. The average farm horse produced 35 pounds of manure or solid waste and two gallons of liquid waste each day. Although horse manure can be an excellent fertilizer when spread across a large field, large amounts in small areas can create high concentrations of nitrogen and bacteria that may filter through the soil into the underground water supply.

Thousands of years ago, people began to farm because they found they could produce more food than by hunting and gathering. Over the years, people discovered some farming practices hurt the land. Cutting down trees, clearing away vegetation, and letting animals overgraze left topsoil unprotected from wind and water erosion. Planting the same crop in the same field year after year used up all of the soil nutrients. As a result, fields lost their ability to produce good crops.

Early farmers learned from mistakes and developed better farming methods. They learned to farm on the contour and build terraces. They learned to rotate their crops. They learned to spread animal manure on fields to restore the organic matter and nutrients.

When European settlers came the New World, they were dazzled by what seemed like endless resources, acres and acres of rich soil that had never been used for European-style crop farming. Many farmers abandoned the methods their ancestors had learned for protecting the land. When one field began to produce poor crops, the farmers would simply abandon it and move farther into the wilderness.

As more people moved in, they began farming sloping lands that could easily wash away and sand soils that could easily blow away. IN the early 20^th century, farmers began plowing up the native grasses of the Southern Plains to plant wheat. Since that land had never been farmed before, farmers had now way of knowing that their hard work would be the first step toward creating what came to be known as the Dust Bowl. A severe drought dried up the exposed soil. With no grass roots to hold the sandy soil in place, it simply blew away with the strong summer winds.

Recognizing a problem is the first step toward solving it. Farmers didn't know plowing up the Plains would cause the soil to blow away. Once they saw what had happened, they did what farmers have been doing for thousands of years. They began thinking of different farming methods they could use that would protect the soil

One method involved using chemicals on weeds instead of turning the soil with a plow. For many years, this method seemed like an excellent way to keep the soil in place while producing the food people needed. Then scientists discovered the chemicals were getting into the water supply and making birds, fish, animals, and people sick. Today farmers and agricultural researchers are working on ways to solve that problem and many more.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Ask students to describe what farmers do. Then ask students to define the word "environmentalist." Ask students if they have heard any news reports about conflicts between farmers and environmentalists (endangered species, grazing on public lands, wetlands). Draw a Venn diagram on the chalkboard, and ask students to list things on which farmers and environmentalists disagree and things they have in common. (Both care about the land. Both need food to eat.)
   
   
2. Share background material and discuss problem/solution and cause/effect relationships.
   
   
3. Divide your class into three groups, and hand out copies of one of the worksheets (see below) to each group. Have students read the situations on the student worksheets and identify the cause and effect and the problem and solution in each one. Students also should identify the alternatives and their effects.
   
   Worksheet A |  Worksheet B |  Worksheet C | Answers
   

Related Activities

1. Have students search current newspapers and magazines for issues having to do with conflicts between agriculture and environmentalism (wetlands, endangered species, etc.).
   
   
2. Lead a discussion on the conflicts between individual rights and the common good, e.g., the individual rights of people who want to smoke in public places conflict with the need to protect the public from second-hand smoke. Lead the discussion toward the individual right of the farmer to use his or her land to make a living in conflict with the public need to protect the environment. Make sure students also recognize the common good that comes from having a safe, inexpensive and abundant food supply and that individual rights sometimes work toward the common good, e.g., the public benefits if the farmer is able to earn a living by producing food.

Resources

Student Books
Andryszewski, T. (1993).   The Dust Bowl: Disaster in the Plains. Millbrook.

George, J.C. (1991). Who Really Killed Cock Robin: An Ecological Mystery. Harper Collins.

Pollock, S. (1993). Ecology. Eyewitness Science, Dorling Kindersley.

Scott, M. (1996). Young Oxford Book of Ecology. Oxford University Press.

Stanley, J. (1992). Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp. Crown.

Yount, L. (1995). Pesticides. Lucent.

Teacher Resources
My Father's Garden, Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA  19547. Phone 1-800-543-3764 (video contrasting the effects of conventional farming using chemicals with those of non-chemical organic farming through the stories of two farm families, one from North Dakota and once from Florida, $250, available free for a 10-day review).

"Things We Can Learn From a Cow and a Worm," National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Education Dept., 444 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL  60611, 1-800-368-3138 (22- by 34-inch educational poster with activities demonstrating the positive role ruminants, especially cattle, play in our environment. Earthworms are featured as an example of natural recycling, code #17-517, $1.50).

Van Cleve, J. (1996) Janice Van Cleve's Ecology for Every Kid. Wiley.

Evaluation
Were students able to identify cause/effect and problem/solution relationships? Were students able to understand the complexity of the farmer's challenge?

Acknowledgement
This lesson was adapted from Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom, Department of Agricultural Education, Communications, and 4-H Youth Development, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK  74078.