Los Angeles school using agriculture to help students

Oct 12, 2016

At-risk students can use a farm to make up credits

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

A school in Los Angeles is helping students at risk of not graduating earn the required credits by using agriculture.

John R. Wooden High School has a farm that students can use as their classroom. Students can take classes including environmental studies, soil science and animal behavior, to develop plans for a drought-resistant garden.

The students can then use their credits to apply to universities including Cal State University and the University of California.

Farm offers refuge for students and animals

“It’s good for me,” 17-year-old Alex Snyder, who used to run away for days and now tends to goats and pigs, told the Los Angeles Times. “If this is my first period, it kind of makes me want to come to school every day.”

The unique classroom atmosphere provides students and teachers with a special learning environment.

According to the L.A. Times, science teacher Stephanie Darling gives students tasks at the farm and quizzes them as they’re completing the work.

As student Bryant Santoyo shoveled mulch into the garden, Darling asked him why he was applying the mulch. Santoyo replied that it acts as fertilizer and keep the ground cool.

On October 22, the school will host Food Day LA and invite the public to the farm to learn about agriculture and how individuals can cultivate some crops in their backyards.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.