Urban Agriculture & Food Production

Illinois Agricultural Education & FFA

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2025 Contest

When: May 8, 2025
Where: Freeport High School, 701 W. Moseley Street, Freeport, IL 61032

Check-in begins at 8:45am. Contest will begin at 9:00am.

Students compete in teams of four. Registration is due 5/3/25 at 4:00 pm to give the organizer enough time to organize judges and food.
Lunch is provided.
There is no cost to register- thanks to the generous sponsorship of Compeer Financial!

A pennant will be awarded to the top scoring High School and Middle School teams. Students on those teams will receive blue ribbons.

The team practicum/problem will be posted on this page on Monday March 24 by Noon.

Format

Written exam (individual, completed before arrival via Google Quiz)
Business plan presentation (team, prepare before arrival and present when you arrive)
Plant identification (individual)
Food judging (individual)
Growing site selection (team)
Practicum TBA (team)

Description

On Friday May 13, 2022, Illinois hosted our nation's first (invitational) Urban Agriculture Career Development Event (CDE) at the Gary Comer Youth Center in Chicago. 65 Students in 18 teams competed to test their knowledge about growing food. Students completed a written test, plant identification, environmental site selection practicum, food product packaging activity, evaluation of food products, and an "urban agriculture business plan" group presentation.

Thank you to Compeer Financial for sponsoring the event.

You can get photos from the 2022 event here. Photos with GCYC at the beginning of the file name are credited to Gary Comer Youth Center. The rest are credited to Illinois Association FFA.

Reminder: this is not an official IAVAT or Illinois FFA CDE.

Rules
Rules found HERE.

Resources

Name	Date Added	Size
Business Plan Template-Food Production CDE	2/13/2024	39 KB
Simple Farm Cash Flow Projection	2/13/2024	16 KB
P&L calculator	2/13/2024	12 KB
Produce Judging Handout	5/18/2022	20 KB
Team Event Scoring Rubric	5/18/2022	166 KB
Urban Ag CDE Plant Identification List	5/18/2022	9 KB
Urban Ag CDE Rotation Schedule	5/18/2022	12 KB
2022 Urban Ag CDE Exam Key	5/18/2022	346 KB
2022 Environmental Practicum	5/18/2022	18 KB

Previous Year Resources

2022 Team Practicum
2023 Team Practicum
2024 Team Practicum Current Event High Score Submission

2022 Production Practicum Examples

2023 Contest
When: Friday May 5, 2023
Where: Gary Comer Youth Center, 7131 S. South Chicago Ave, Chicago

View event photos here.


	More Information

This event is similar in design to the Envirothon. Students will compete as teams of four.

There is no limit to the number of students a school may bring. It is designed to serve as a final course summative assessment.

For more information, contact Luke Allen, Ag Education Program Advisor. Register on the IL AgEd website Event Registration area.


	Sponsors

Thank you to Compeer Financial for sponsoring the event!

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