Youth and Sustainable Agriculture

What is Sustainable Agriculture?

This award-winning report provides a sampler of best practices in sustainable agriculture—from marketing and community vitality to cover crops and grazing—as well as eight profiles of producers, educators and researchers who have successfully implemented them.

Sustainable Agriculture Resources and Programs for K-12 Youth

This 38-page guide to sustainable agriculture-oriented educational opportunities for schoolchildren features more than 75 programs and curricula nationwide.

Sustainable Ag Poster

A poster depicting the elements of sustainable agriculture.

Youth Renewing the Countryside

This full-color book profiles 50 inspiring young people—one from every state—who are revitalizing rural America with new enterprises.

SARE Library USB Drive

All of SARE’s current publications right at your fingertips.

Youth Educator Grant Fact Sheet

The North Central Region SARE (NCR-SARE) recognizes that youth programs are a way to introduce new and exciting farming and ranching options to youth, parents, and community members. Youth Educator grants support projects by youth educators that encourage youth to try sustainable practices and explore sustainable agriculture as a viable career option.

Food Systems Curriculum for High Schoolers

Mingla Charoenmuang developed an online food systems curriculum for high schoolers called Food Systems Thinker.

Youth Coloring Sheet

This coloring sheet helps youth learn how sustainable producers can contribute to a healthy environment, make a good living, and grow a strong and healthy community of caring people.

Sustainable Agriculture Learning Modules for High School Agriculture

Established with the aid of a NCR-SARE Professional Development grant, these Sustainable Agriculture Learning Modules from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were created to offer insight into what sustainability within agriculture actually looks like.

Internship Curriculum for Food Farmers

With the help of an NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher Grant, three farmers worked with interns to develop 26 educational power point modules as part of a comprehensive intern educational program. The internship curriculum is useful for small farmers to use on their own to educate themselves and to provide a rich experience for interns.  

Edible Avalon Curriculum

This summer program curriculum teaches youth about local food systems and sustainable agriculture.

Soil Health and Nutrient Management for Minority Farmers: a Train-the-Trainer Workshop

With support from SARE, a team of researchers, educators, and producers in Minnesota developed a soil health and cover cropping handbook as a train-the-trainer resource for educators, mentors, and community leaders working with immigrant and minority growers.

Integrating Sustainability Education into the University Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Curriculum through the Use of School Gardens

Developed by Brian Bluhm, this curriculum is intended to provide pre-service elementary school teachers a sustainability learning experience in sustainable agriculture through the use of school gardens. 

Youth Educator Videos

This collection of videos features SARE grantees sharing information about the work that they’ve done as youth educators.

Towards a Sustainable Agriculture: A Curriculum for High School Classes

This free high-school curriculum addresses the social, environmental and economic impacts of agriculture. The curriculum provides a critical analysis of agricultural and food systems, and helps students understand new concepts through hands-on examples. The curriculum includes six modules, designed to be incorporated into existing classes.

Farm to School Training Toolkit

Resources for ag educators and community leaders who are starting a farm to school program.