Garden based education : the importance of agriculture in elementary schools of the Salinas Valley

California is the nation’s top agricultural state, just last year it made $43.5 billion dollars in revenue. The state relies heavily on agriculture, and it is the largest industry here locally in the Salinas Valley. To the disadvantage, most elementary school kids do not learn about agriculture in their classrooms. And agriculture could be tied to the natural content areas like science and health. Because money allocated for nutrition teachers and school garden projects have been reduced or simply eliminated in many local schools. And thus, I have built a garden in Alisal Community Elementary School as my action project. I presented students with concepts dealing with agriculture, food production, and nutrition; at the same time tying the information to science concepts. The efforts helped students make conscious decisions about what they eat, how they treat the earth, and even the possibility of a future agricultural career