The farm bill is set to expire at the end of next month. Ongoing obstacles to Congress passing a new farm bill have been disagreements over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and commodity titles. A committee of representatives from the House and Senate are expected to meet this week to discuss reconciling the bill before year-end. Congress will begin its winter recess on December 13.

The path forward is uncertain if a new farm bill is not passed. Congress may vote to extend the 2008 bill, as it did in 2012, or the farm bill from 1949 will take effect. In that case, permanent programs such as crop insurance and SNAP would be unaffected. IPM programs are funded by annual appropriations and are not guaranteed under the 1949 bill. 

Teachers now have a growing collection of curriculum tools focused on educating young people about IPM. For example, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension's Pest Private Eye and the Case of IPM in Schools (Pest PI) is a free educational video game that teaches kids about pests and IPM. IPM Super Sleuth from the IPM Institute of North America includes quizzes, virtual house inspections, word searches, crosswords and word matching games for grades 1-7.

Maine's School IPM Program maintains several resources for educators including a brochure describing the benefits of teaching IPM, and an IPM Literacy Plan for K-12 Education. The D.B. Pest Game from Penn State Extension leads children on a virtual chase through a home to answer pesticide safety questions. It is designed for kindergarten through fourth grades.  Pennsylvania has established academic standards requiring IPM instruction in school.

This month the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Austin incorporated a workshop session targeting K-12 educators. A bed bug session, hosted by Rebecca Baldwin of the University of Florida, focused on the Bed Bugs and Book Bags program. The Bed Bugs and Book Bags curriculum is available for download and instructs both teachers and students about bed bug identification and prevention, including IPM practices.