Impacts of Agricultural Practices

• This video about the environmental impacts of industrial farming practices includes information about tilling, slash-and-burn, monoculture, erosion, and fertilizer usage. 
• Students will learn how products like cereal, rice milk, and pajamas are connected to industrial agricultural practices. 

Positives

• It includes a time stamped transcript with a highlight feature for students to follow along.
• The topic is made more relatable for students by connecting it to common household items.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should have a basic understanding of the role healthy and nutrient-rich soil plays in agricultural practices.
• It can be difficult for students to learn that things they enjoy at home including cereal and pajamas can be contributing to environmental damages, but there are more sustainable cereals and clothing to choose from, especially those with certification labels that show they are protecting forests, using better farming methods, or protecting wildlife by not using pesticides.

Differentiation

• This video and interactive quiz can be used for AP Environmental Science classes and biology classes to connect to lessons about soils, microbes, the carbon cycle, limiting nutrients, or decomposition.
  
•  Geography and social studies classes could use this resource to discuss how industrial farming has changed the business model of farms, reduced the number of jobs in farming, and contributed to higher costs to get into farming (for the machinery, fuel, chemicals, seeds, and land).
  
• Students who want to learn more about the impacts their food has on the environment can explore the Environmental Impacts of Food Data Explorer.
• Other resources related to these topics include the videos How Will Climate Change Impact Agriculture? and Climate Change and Agriculture in the Garden State.
• Regenerative farming is a sustainable alternative to industrial farming, which students can learn more about in the videos How Regenerative Agriculture Curbs Climate Change and Can Food Save the World?