President Clinton signed the 2000 farm bill into law.

Ever since President Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1862, the United States government has used a variety of methods to assist farmers. The U.S. government has provided aid to farmers during times of drought and floods and subsidies to farmers when high production has led to lower prices. The farm bill in 2000 provided $3.5 billion dollars in disaster relief for farmers beleaguered by droughts, floods and fires. Much of the money went directly to pay for loss of crops, but some went to specific farming industries, such as livestock producers and apple and cranberry growers. As agricultural technology and farming methods have improved, larger farms have begun to outperform small and mid-sized farms, so the 2000 farm bill also sought to prevent family farms from going out of business.

Xpeditions
In Weather and Agriculture (9–12), students research, discuss and write reports on the relationship between climate and agriculture. Students pretend that they've just purchased farms in specific parts of the United States and investigate that region's weather and climate in order to maximize the chances that their farms will succeed.

Science NetLinks
Modern Technology and Farming (3–5) is an open-ended lesson about agriculture and farming technology. Students have an opportunity to explore five different kinds of farms on a Web site with interesting visual and audio enhancements.

Students learn where their food comes from in a two-part series of lessons on crops. In Crops 1: Where Does Food Come From? (K–2), students learn that most of the food they buy in stores originally comes from farms. In Crops 2: What Plants Need to Grow (K–2), students participate in a simple in-class gardening activity to learn how to grow plants and about the kinds of things that promote growth (warmth, sunlight, water, soil).

Science NetLinks also offers two-part lesson series on farming. In Farming 1: Farm Machines (K–2), students learn how machines help people grow food. In Farming 2: Packaging and Transport (K–2), students learn about the kinds of materials and machines that are involved in transporting, processing, packaging and distributing wheat and wheat flour in their long journey from the farm to our dining room tables.

The Science Update Farmers & Pesticides (6–12) discusses a new study that suggests that even the routine use of pesticides can pose serious health risks in the long run.

Robot Farmers (6–12) discusses how cheap robots may revolutionize farming.

EconEdLink
The Economics of the Family Farm (9–12) is a primer on the economics of agriculture. This lesson introduces students to some basic agricultural economics knowledge necessary for interpreting the agricultural events seen in the news. Students examine a number of indices to determine if the prices received by farmers are going up or down, and they use an Excel spreadsheet to determine if farming is more or less profitable than it was five years ago. This lesson is part of the NetNewsLine "The Economics of the Family Farm."

The Mystery of the Amazing Farmers (3–8) guides students through problem-solving activities in an exploration of the relationship of technology and standards of living. Students also learn about the concepts of human capital and productivity through an analysis of the changes in U.S. agricultural methods in the last century.

In Dry as a Bone (9–12), students examine the current state of drought in the United States and the economic impact on local communities. They examine a hypothetical farming community and calculate the economic impact of the drought for the community.

ReadWriteThink
In Let it Grow: An Inquiry-Based Organic Gardening Research Project (6–8), students learn about organic gardening by developing their own research questions, conducting research and gardening at their school.