SEVENTY-five per cent of Australian students think cotton socks are an animal product and 45 per cent of students could not identify that everyday lunchbox items such as a banana, bread and cheese originated from farms, according to a survey, undertaken by the Australian Council of Educational Research.

A survey released by the Primary Industries Education Foundation shows that student and teacher knowledge related to food and fibre production has declined to worrying levels.

“This survey is a wake-up call to government, industry and educators and comes at a time when the Primary
Industries are being excluded from the national curriculum,” PIEF chairman Cameron Archer said.

“The survey results are clear in demonstrating that this approach is not working. Our young students do not
have enough of a basic understanding of where their food, clothing and building materials come from.”

He said the survey highlighted the need for a long-term, cross-industry, whole- of-government approach to school
education and career attraction in order to meet the challenges related to food security in the next 50 years.

“The primary industries sectors face a critical shortage in attracting new entrants at all levels of the supply chain.
This will have serious implications in the next five to 10 years as we begin to understand the implications that
an ill-informed public, climate variability and the skills shortage will have on Australia’s ability to feed 70 million
people here and abroad,” said Dr Archer.

“The people who will need to solve the problems related to food security are either currently in school or are yet
to be born.”

Nine hundred rural and urban students from Years 6 and 10 were surveyed from 61 schools across the States over almost four months to last October. There were no participants from the ACT or the NT.

The Primary Industries Education Foundation is a national initiative with a long-term approach to developing community understanding of food and fibre production and career attraction to the sector by meeting the needs of teachers to increase the teaching and learning in schools related to the topic.

In the Australian Curriculum, the latest version of the draft Sustainability Curriculum contained no direct reference
to sustainable food and fibre production, despite representations from industry and education bodies, Mr Archer said.

The survey also demonstrated that 100 per cent of primary teachers and 91 per cent of secondary teachers believe it
was important that students are taught about the origins of their food and fibre.

It also revealed:

• More than two thirds of students mistakenly believe most logs harvested come from native forests.
• 40 per cent of Year 10 students believe farming damages the environment.
• 46 per cent of students saw no link between the use of on-farm inputs and increased food production.
• 28 per cent of  Year 10 students thought natural fibres only came from plants.
• 75 per cent of Year 6 students thought cotton socks are an animal product.
• 27 per cent of Year 6 students thought yoghurt is a plant product.
• 21 per cent of Year 6 students think sugar is a man made product
• 37 per cent of Year 6 students and 29 per cent of Year 10 students believe cooking oil to be a man-made (artificial) product.
• Only 55 per cent of students identified that bread, cheese and bananas all originate from farmed products.
• Only 27 per cent of students identified salmon as a farmed product.