A Meta-Analysis of Agricultural Literacy Programs for Youth and Adults

Abstract

A majority of Americans lack sufficient agricultural literacy levels. The purpose of this meta-analysis project was to assess the impact of agricultural literacy programs on participants’ knowledge of the farm to fork process. Spielmaker and Leising (2013) classified the national learning benchmarks for agricultural literacy into five major themes. The themes entail (a) agriculture and the environment, (b) plants and animals for food, fiber, and energy, (c) food, health, and lifestyle, (d) science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and (e) culture, society, economy, and geography. Since the search process should be systematic, effective, and reproducible, it is imperative that comprehensive as well as rigorous databases be selected. The initial search yielded 569 articles. A majority of studies were eliminated for not being an agricultural literacy program. The final stage consisted of 38 studies in the full-text screening process. Paired with the citation search, 9 articles were included for analysis. Each study was assessed and coded on six main constructs which were (a) article characteristics, (b) participant characteristics, (c) intervention (d) instrumentation, (e) research design, and (f) effect size information. Cochran’s Q and I2 were employed to assess effect size homogeneity. Cochran’s Q indicates a significant degree of heterogeneity (Q = 285. 4, p < .01) exists. The I2 for this study was 98.32 % indicating substantial heterogeneity in this meta-analysis. An inherent lack of scientific evidence on the impact these programs have on improving consumers’ literacy levels exists. Understanding the pitfalls and assets of current agriculture literacy efforts are essential.