Cotton + Corn + Catfish + Computers =

Agriculture in Franklin Parish

Introduction: Congratulations, you are about to embark on an exciting journey that will take you through the vast regions of the Internet in search of facts about the major crops of Franklin Parish. The future economic growth of Franklin Parish depends upon your finding out the importance of agriculture in the parish. After researching the situation, your team will prepare a presentation to inform the public of the role agriculture plays in the lives of Franklin Parish citizens. Put on your traveling shoes and find out why cotton + corn + catfish + computers = agriculture in Franklin Parish.

The Task: The importance of agriculture in Franklin Parish must be established in order for the economy to continue to flourish. It is your job to research the topic and prepare a presentation to inform the public of the impact agriculture plays on the lives of every citizen, whether or not he/she is directly involved in farming. You will work with three other students in cooperative groups. Each member of your group will assume one of the following roles:

FARMER--Your family's entire income comes from farming. You have to make a decision about what crops to plant next year and how best to provide for yourself and your family with no other income than farming. What factors will influence whether or not you will be successful next year? Search the resources and find out what information you need to know in order to make the right choices.

Business Person: You own a small business in Franklin Parish. Your business success depends upon a good crop year for the farmers. Searchthe resources for information that indicates the relationship between successful farming years and business success in the area.

Economist: Your job is to show the relationship between farming success and a healthy economy for Franklin Parish. You spot trends in the economy and predict what factors will influence the lives of the citizens of Franklin Parish and affect the amount of income they have to live on.

Historian: Your assignment is to see what changes have occurred in agriculture and compare today's farming operation with that of the past. You also like to speculate on reasons for changes in life on the farm and relate the changes to changes in society.

The Process: Your teacher will assign you a role, a partner for the Web Quest, and two other team members of a cooperative group to prepare your presentation. You and your partner will first complete the Web Quest. Follow the hot links in the resource section and find the answers to the questions below. Be sure to look at each site for other information that will help you present your point of view. Additional sites of value to you are found after the list of questions. You will be given a copy of the student answer sheet to record your answers and to record any other notes you need to prepare your part of your group's presentation. Your team (four members) will work in a cooperative group to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint presentation must include the following elements: (1) title page giving team members names and roles, (2) introduction, (3) sections giving information given from each of the four roles--farmer, business person, economist, and historian, and (4) a conclusion. Your team will present the PowerPoint to the class, with each member taking part in the presentation, explaining his/her role.

The Resources:

1. When did catfish farming begin in Franklin Parish? Discuss the beginnings of the company that is featured here. What impact has the company had on the economy of Franklin Parish?  http://www.haringspride.com/company.htm

2. Name the top catfish consuming state? Where does Louisiana rank in catfish consumption? How does catfish rank in relation to other fish consumed in the United States? What was the per capita consumption of catfish in the United States in 1997? How much catfish was processed in the United States in 1991? In 1992? In 1993? In 1994? In 1995? In 1996? In 1997? What trend can we predict for the future from these figures? What was the price per pound of catfish during these years.  Which three years saw the highest prices? http://www.catfishinstitute.com/intro.html

3. How many farms were in operation in Franklin Parish according to
the Agriculture Census in 1992? In 1997? What trend do we see when
we look at the size of farms in Franklin Parish in 1992 and in 1997? http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census97/highlights/la/graphics.htm

4. How much cotton was produced in Franklin Parish in 1997? In
Louisiana in 1997?  http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/wwwac/cotton/cotparis.htm

5. How many bushels of corn are grown in the United States? In
Louisiana? http://www.ohiocorn.org/about/where.htm

6. How many pounds of lint cotton were grown in Franklin Parish in
1994, 1995, and 1996? What other major crops are listed as being
grown in Franklin Parish?   http://leap.nlu.edu/CROPSFVL.HTM

7. What are the projected number of acres of cotton and corn in
Louisiana for 1998? Is this an increase or decrease in cotton? In corn?
http://www.nass.usda.gov/la/nw698int.htm

8. Go to the LSU Rural Life Museum and click on the map. Click on the
buildings to take a virtual tour of the exhibit. Answer the following
questions about the points on the tour:

What architectural style is the church built in?
What was the punkha used for in the overseer's house?
Why was the kitchen set apart from the main house?
What type of desks were found in the school house?
How did the blacksmith sharpen his tools?
What was the grist mill used for?
What is a shotgun house?
What is a dogtrot house?
What does the term "folk architecture" refer to?
Describe the Acadian House.

http://rurallife.lsu.edu/

9. Find your senator's and representative's address.

http://www.house.gov

http://www.senate.gov

10. What is aflatoxin? (Look for "Aflotoxin Research Shows Promise.")

http://agnews.tamu.edu/stories/PATH/aflares.htm

11. What is El Nino? What effect does it have on the weather? How can El lNino affect crops in Franklin Parish? http://nimbo.wrh.noaa.gov/Sandiego/elnino.html

12. How does the boll weevil harm cotton? What message does the "Boll lWeevil Song" tell us? http://www.simplelife.com/organiccotton/08WEEVLsng.html

13. What Franklin Parish crop does the tobacco bud worm affect? Bonus: Is it a true worm?    

http://hammock.ifas.ufl.edu/txt/fairs/8189

14. Copy a catfish recipe you found on this site.
http://www.catfishinstitute.com/intro.html

15. What is the total value of agricultural crops in Franklin Parish? What effect might a bad crop year have on the economy of Franklin Parish? http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/agcenter/AgSum97/97/franklin.htm



Other Agriculture Sources:
College of Agriculture/LSU                            

http://www.coa.lsu.edu/coa/coa-home.htm

Value of Louisiana Agriculture

http://www.agctr.lsu.edu/agcenter/value.html

Louisiana Farm Resource Guide

http://www.brms.com/agri/menustla.htm

U. S. Department of Agriculture http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census97/agrimenu.htm

Not Just Cows                             

http://www.snymor.edu/~drewwe/njc/

Yahoo Agriculture            

http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Agriculture

AgriGator                 

http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/www/agator/htm.ag.htm

The Weather Channel     

http://www.weather.com/twc/homepage.twc

The Swine Net                                                       

http://www.swine.net

Cowtown America                                                  

http://www.beef.org

Pathfinder Virtual Garden

http://www.pathfinder.com/@@3rVLxwQA5Rvkdciz/vg

Chicago Mercantile Exchange                               

http://www.cme.com/

Online Calculators- Agriculture

http://www.sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/RefCalculators1.html#AGRI

National Agricultural Library                         

http://www.nal.usda.gov/

AgView                                                            

http://www.agview.com/

Census of Agriculture       

http://sasquatch.kerr.orst.edu/ag-stateis.html

World Wide Web Virtual Library/Agriculture
http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/cernag/cern.html

World Agriculture Links (Useful for World History and World Geography)

The State of Food & Agriculture 1998 http://www.fao.org/docrep/w9500e/w9500e00.htm

Agricultural Database

http://apps.fao.org/cgi-bin/nph-db.pl?subset=agriculture

Database on Food & Agriculture for Eastern Africa

http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/ECONOMIC/GIEWS/ENGLISH/basedocs/eafrbase.htm

Agriculture, Fisheries, & Fostries--Austrialia

http://www.dpie.gov.au/

Taiwan Agriculture Information Center

http://www.taiwan-agriculture.org/

World Agriculture Odyssey

http://www.odysseyphoto.com/major/wagri.html

Belarus

http://www.janes.com/geopol/sentinel/CISRSA/CISRSA_Belarus.html

World Agriculture:  Trends and Indicators

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu:70/data-sets/international/89024

Agriculture--India

http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/jul98/07_41_005.html

Evaluation:
Your final project grade will be based on the following components:
1. Your constructive use of class time to accomplish the assigned tasks (individual).
2. Your completed answer sheet (pair).
3. Your group multimedia presentation (PowerPoint).
4. You will be evaluated with a scoring rubric.

Conclusion:
The concluding activity for this Web Quest will be a series of presentations toa committee studying the impact of farming on the economy of Franklin Parish. The team giving the best presentation will be sent to Washington, D.C. to present its findings before the Senate Agriculture Committee to try to convince them to provide more support for farmers in the parish. The winning team will also be asked to make presentations to local governmental and civic groups, explaining to them the vital role of agriculture in Franklin Parish.