Traditionally, students have been strongly encouraged at the high school level to consider careers and choose courses that would fortify occupations of interest. Today, administrators and educators across the nation realize that developing students' interest must be addressed earlier--at the middle school level. Agriculture educators believe this to be true and are working to grow middle school agriculture education. There is a lack of agricultural literacy in America. The majority of the U.S. population does not live on farms and does not engage in production agriculture. This has contributed to the diminishment of agricultural knowledge that has taken place over the decades but supports the need for agriculture education in today's schools. Middle school agriculture educators enlighten students both in the classroom and the laboratory. And, with the growing world of biotechnology, a "new agriculture" has emerged, offering students exciting new career paths to consider before reaching high school where, customarily, the groundwork has been laid.