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University City High School is in the center of the sprawl in and around St. Louis — about as insulated as it could be from the wide swaths of farmland outside the city.
Tucked in the back of the school, between the gymnasium and the swimming facility, is a shipping container that contains the school’s new hydroponic farm.
Students in the school’s agriculture program are growing their first batch of lettuce, basil and collards.
“You can grow all year round. You don't have to wait for certain seasons,” said Corey Bradley, manager of this hydroponic farm and several others like it throughout the city.
His indoor farm can produce up to three acres of fresh produce for the neighborhood year-round, he said, all while teaching students every step of the farming process.
“There’s not farms in the urban city,” Bradley said. “By having a hydroponic farm in the middle of an urban community, it exposes more people, the youth, to agriculture.”
The students chartered their FFA chapter in January as the last step to earn state approval for their agriculture program — making it one of the first FFA chapters in St. Louis and its suburbs.
It’s part of a growing number of FFA chapters in city schools.
Beyond the barn
Agriculture employment grew 10% nationwide between 2010 and 2024, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. That means potential jobs for people who grew up far from traditional agriculture.
Christine White, the chief program officer with the National FFA Organization, said FFA chapters across the country serve students in urban, technology-forward settings.
“When you think about agriculture holistically, from pre-research all the way to consumers, the food, ag and natural resources value chain has opportunities for all students to engage in the industry,” White said.
A spokesperson for the organization said nearly a fifth of all FFA chapters are situated in urban and suburban areas. That includes 1,164 suburban chapters and 687 urban chapters as of August last year.
White said that the organization formerly known as Future Farmers of America changed its name to invite urban and suburban students who don’t encounter traditional farming in their neighborhoods.
“It's one of our growing and emerging areas,” White said. “(Urban schools) are seeing themselves when you look at agriculture from the wider context, especially when you're looking at it from food, natural resources and those areas."
Though University City High School is one of the first of its kind in St. Louis, it’s situated in a hub for life sciences. The high school is within driving distance of huge biotech firms like Bayer and Millipore Sigma. And prominent incubators like BioSTL and Cortex have brought an influx of agriculture startups in recent years.
The chapter’s advisor Pamela Lester said St. Louis’ blooming life sciences industry offers her agriculture students diverse career opportunities.
“We wanted to open their eyes to the ag industry,” Lester said. “Typically, people think that ag is only for rural places, and that's completely not true.”
A nationwide trend
Urban and suburban students have access to the same resources through their local FFA chapters, but those often result in vastly different career opportunities for students.
Tanner Smith is the FFA advisor for the Arlington, Texas, school district. Like many of his students, he said he joined FFA in high school with no agriculture background.
“I learned about FFA, and the rest is history,” Smith said. “I raised goats and cattle and chickens through high school. I went and got a degree in agriculture sciences. Now, I'm here teaching these kids.”
Smith said his urban FFA students have taken careers in wildlife management, agriculture marketing and veterinary medicine after encountering the industry for the first time in his class. Even if they don’t choose a career in agriculture, Smith said FFA still gives students an opportunity to learn about the wide scope of the farming industry.
“They are never going to get exposure to agriculture after high school unless they actively seek it,” Smith said. “I think one of the most important jobs is to teach them everything I can about agriculture and how it plays a role in almost everything that they do, everything that they eat, everything that they own.”
Taylor Cooper is the FFA advisor at Bryan High School in Omaha, Nebraska. She said her agriculture students take on projects that often intersect with other industries.
A prospective cosmetology student in Cooper’s class is currently using her independent project to develop a line of hair products.
“She is growing the plants herself, so she can actually process them,” Cooper said. “Even finding that connection there with a career that's not in any way ag has been one of our biggest successes for our kids.”
Unlike University City, which sits on the border between the City of St. Louis and its suburbs, Cooper said Bryan High School is close to a small farm. She said her students bridge traditional and urban farming practices with internships in engineering, urban gardening and nonprofit food distribution work.
“We (have a) very wide range of a lot of things that are really not too different from small towns either,” Cooper said. “I like to think we do a really good job of working with our partners in Omaha.”
A fledgling chapter
Students in University City are gearing up to participate in FFA statewide and national competitions. But first on the agenda is fundraising for basic FFA necessities, like uniforms and travel costs.
This semester, students are establishing a presence in the neighborhood by hosting a plant sale and teaching agriculture classes at the elementary school across the street.
Maximiliano Rojas is a junior at University City High School. Growing up in the suburbs, he said he never imagined getting involved in agriculture.
“I didn’t even know what ‘ag’ was,” Rojas said.
Now, he’s leading those fundraising projects as the chapter’s first secretary.
“I'm hoping to see it thrive more, actually getting kids into it,” Rojas said. “It's more than just what is mostly known, a casual farm life of going out, taking care of crops and animals. It's more than just that.”
Emonie Bailey is a senior at University City High School and the inaugural president of the new chapter. She said taking a leadership role in FFA has encouraged her to pursue a career in biotech.
“It makes me look at what I want to do after I graduate, like, all the opportunities that I have and how this could help me,” Bailey said.
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.