Education as a way to demystify Agriculture

Agribusiness is currently the main pillar of the Brazilian economy, in addition to providing hundreds of raw materials to industries and to bring food to the tables of Brazil and of the world. Even so, the sector still faces challenges arising from the lack of knowledge of the population about real Agriculture, that made by thousands of Brazilians day to day, who face economic and climate challenges, scarcity of supplies, market volatility and, most importantly, doing the thing right and preserving the environment.

This real Agro that preserves and food is not the topic of newspapers, magazines, portals and television channels with the largest audiences in the country. Even though specialized vehicles report correctly, communication is still limited to Agro's own public, which already know the sector and its modus operandi.

So how can we take knowledge about agribusiness for the population? The answer is simple. It is not easy, but it's simple. One of the ways to provide real information about the agribusiness can be at school, inserting Agro into the school routine as part of of relevant disciplines, lectures, visits to the field, always with a lot of respect for the curriculum and teaching metrics of each state.

We need to talk about agribusiness in schools

Children know where the foods they consume? The clothes they wear? Do you know what happens in the field? Where does the food purchased at the supermarket come from?

The truth is that there is an abyss between what happens inside the gate and the big cities, where the majority of the Brazilian population and consumers. This distance from population about what is done in the field generates doubts and lack of knowledge, leads to prejudice and criticism without any technical-scientific basis.

Our Agro is a reference in the world in terms of productivity, food exports, technologies and actions sustainable. Furthermore, areas dedicated to the preservation of native vegetation across the Brazilian rural world total 282,8 million hectares and represent 33,2% of Brazilian territory. The numbers are from a study carried out by Embrapa Territorial, with the geoprocessing of data from the 2017 Agricultural Census and the National Rural Environmental Registry System (SiCAR), the latter updated until February 2021.

Education appears as the way to bring knowledge to a new generation of Brazilians, who can starting from the didactics learned at school, promoting this knowledge at home, among colleagues and friends, and in the society in which they live.

There are many topics that can be worked on in conjunction with various disciplines, from literacy to Secondary education, such as food production, use of robots and drones, agriculture digital, circular agriculture, nanotechnology, plant genetic improvement and animals, innovations that everyone needs to know, as they point to a new journey of technological and sustainable agriculture in the country's development.

The possibilities for teaching and to learn are many: we can talk about supplement industries, machines, implements, technology development, software, high precision, genetics, fertilizers, medicines, vaccines, veterinary medicine, administration, agronomy, animal husbandry, research, purchasing, sales, health, storage, distribution and processing, logistics, national and international markets, transport, ports, and much more. "I did not know? Now you know!”

And at no point can we forget who made our country reach the condition of guaranteeing security food for our people: rural producers. Men and women who dedicate their lives, they work from sunrise to sunset, every day, to offer everything that feeds us and makes our lives better.

The chances of knowledge are endless that can help demystify the ideal rooted in society that agribusiness is the villain. Teaching, with care and affection, the trajectory of brilliant Brazilian Agro we will go further, as we will form a new generation of conscious young people who admire the sector and, who knows, engaged in its development.

In this sense, we, in the Movement All with One Voice, we have led several actions that share information about Agro from the aspect of education. “The Kingdom of Agrus” is a good example.

It is an audiobook that narrates the daily lives of the characters in this kingdom and their activities to help the people with solutions that originate from Agro. From the narratives, the characters encourage questions about the sector – and its challenges and perspectives – in a healthy, playful and attractive way. By means of stories, agribusiness takes center stage in the audiobook and, in this way, dialogues not only with children, but also with parents, educators, consumers common.

At the first chapter, the audiobook introduced the story and told about the strange dream of King Amos, a responsible leader who was very careful with his people. O second chapter revolves around sustainability and discusses how to preserve natural resources of the Kingdom, care for the environment and ways sustainable practices of good environmental and animal welfare practices. The third chapter, still in the production phase, intends to pay homage to professionals in Education. Furthermore, the idea is also to motivate teachers to help bring correct information about Agro to the classroom.

For In this third episode, the main character chosen by the public, through of online voting, to be the inspiration, was the educator Branca Alves de Lima (1911-2001). The teacher was the creator of Cartilha Suave, a teaching method visionary who, in 50 years, made more than 40 million Brazilians literate. You episodes are available at the link: https://todosaumasovoz.com.br/site/o-reino-de-agrus

Yet on the theme of reporting on Agriculture in an informative and educational way, the Movimento Todos a Uma Voz is producing the “Cartilha do ABC do Agro”. Per through the letters of the alphabet, the child has contact with information about the Agro, rural producers and products from the sector as a way of showing the its importance in our lives. The objective is to awaken, from an early age, the students' admiration for Agriculture and producers.

Another initiative is the compendium entitled “Agro for Students.” Aimed at teachers and parents from all over Brazil, it is the result of partnership between the All in One Voice Movement and the National Federation of Private Schools (FENEP). The material lists on its pages 10 themes of agribusiness to make teaching on the subject more attractive. The compendium has, as a production base, content developed by two important names in the sector, teachers Xico Graziano and Marcos Fava Neves and takes them to schools in the country relevant themes, which help to explain the performance and importance of sector for new generations.

The themes of the compendium are: cooperativism in Agro, use of food, riparian forests, innovative practices that respect animals, alternative forms of food production, bioeconomy, agriculture precision, genetic improvement, collaborative agribusiness and relevant activities such as beekeeping, forestry and planted forests, fish farming and shrimp farming (shrimp production), floriculture and ornamental plants.

For us, the future It can be brilliant, and it all starts with education.