China!

Saturday, January 14th

We began with a boat cruise on the canal, one of my favorite activities. It was cool to float along the canal- going through and seeing all the town’s houses along the canal. The houses were not exactly in the best condition. Some might even say it was dirty but it was an interesting experience to see the way they live. Life on the canal is definitely a lifestyle. We all briefly got to get off the boat and walk through a small town food market. It was tightly packed and raining so a lot of umbrellas were bustling through the narrow streets. It was hard to move around the already hectic market. I saw chickens and ducks caged up ready for butchering. Very very different from anything that I’m used to. Though the town market was quite ridiculous and a little dirty it also had a very local small town feeling at the same time. Afterwards we went to the Silk Institute. It was one of my favorite agricultural tours probably because I had never considered silk worms as part of an agriculture product. It was very cool and interesting to see that process first hand. We saw each step from when they are bred till the point where they become moths. I have never seen a goose farm in the U.S. so I don’t know how things would be different in comparison to China. Things at the geese farm seemed what I would consider “normal”. The company breeds over 5,000 geese by Lake Tai. It slaughters daily to meet the demands. The tea farm was beautiful. Acres and acres of tea bushes covered the land. Every leaf off of each bush was handpicked off in the month of May. It was a crazy busy day but a very enjoyable day as well! I got a chance to get some rest on the ride over to Shanghai!

The State Officer Team visiting a Livestock facility in China!

Sunday, January 15^th

Our first morning in Shanghai, we went to the Yu Garden. It was a favorite of mine, for sure! The Yu Garden was built by a past emperor for his parents to have a place to go and rest. Unfortunately the parents passed away before the garden was finish. The government now owns it and it is open to the public for viewing. Beautiful plants can be found everywhere. At the entrance of the garden were enormous bright colored displays representing the Chinese New Year celebration.  Later we went to the Bund area, a bridge like structure in Shanghai that overlooks the river. The area reminded me a lot of a modern town you would find in New York or London, it was very pretty. We then walked to Nanjing Road. It was packed! It is known as one of the biggest and busiest shopping streets in China. There were so many stores and shops! After doing some shopping my group ate at Das Haagen, a German ice cream. It was so good!!! That night we had a very yummy farewell dinner and saw a Chinese acrobat show! Those acrobats were very talented! They did so many cool stunts! At last it was time to return to the hotel and pack up for our flights home!

China: Not Qiute What I Expected

When you think of China, what first comes to mind? Maybe it is dragons and rice, or pandas and the Great Wall. What about bamboo and the Forbidden City? When I was preparing for my trip with the International Leadership Seminar for State Officers (ILSSO) I had my own ideas on China. First, I knew that many of our products here in the US are made in China. Second, China is really far away. And third, I believed the Chinese were probably pretty different from you and I since they are so far away. I also knew that the people I met in China possibly had a few thoughts about me. Maybe they thought I lived like a movie star or was very loud. I was in for a pleasant surprise when I went to China.

Throughout my travels in China I recognized that some of my ideas were wrong or slightly twisted. One of my views on China was that a lot of the products here in the US are from China. Though that is true, after being in China I have a different attitude about this. While at a wholesale market in China that was on 38 acres of land (and looked much like our shops do when the fruit comes in for our fruit fundraisers), I learned that 40% of their imported products come from America. This was a big shock to me. Who knew that so much comes from America! I was pretty excited. Then at the Bunge Soybean Processing Plant I learned that most of the soybeans there came from the United States as well. So even though we may get a lot of products from China, many of the products in China also come from us. China and America are the top counties when it comes to providing for the world. So rather than having a negative attitude towards China we need to seek to establish a partnership with them and be willing to work together for a greater good; feeding the world.

My other two misconceptions on China were that is was really far away so it must be extremely different. Yes China is half way around the world but the people there are not all that different. One of the mornings while we were there we spent time with some college students. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip. It was so special to get to know people my own age from China that could speak English. I had the opportunity to spend the morning with a girl named Sarah. She was a 20 years old agriculture student. Though some of the things she did from day to day were a little different from life in the US, we had a lot in common. We both were interested in agriculture, both wanting to learn about each other’s lives, and both loved our families. I got to ask her questions about her life in China and she asked about my life in America. Coming into it we both had ideas of how the other lived. She thought my life was like Gossip Girls and I thought she spent all day studying. We quickly realized that our lives were very similar. We have been keeping in connect through email to continue to get to know each other. It is so cool to know that I now have a friend in China.

Going to China was an incredible experience. I learned so much, experienced another culture and a different way of life and met so many new friends. One of the things that impacted my life was the reminder of how blessed I am to live in America. I truly appreciate being an American. After seeing the countryside filled with trash and run down buildings I soon realized that people lived there. This was their home. It was very humbling. And later at the US Embassy while we had the unbelievable privilege to say the Pledge of Allegiance on American soil in China, I felt truly proud to be an American. This made me so thankful to live in America where we have so many blessings and so many freedoms.

Going to China helped me break down those misunderstandings I had about the country. Traveling there first-hand helped me see what life in China is really like. I encourage you to really seek to understand someone or something before you pass judgments on them. This trip made me see how untrue those judgments can be.

 

The State Officer team in China during ILSSO!

Young Farmers of Virginia Winter Convention

On January 20^th-22^nd the state officer team traveled to Wytheville, Virginia for the annual Young Farmers of Virginia state convention. Friday evening everyone convened for a meal and we gave a brief presentation on our trip to China. The next day we did farm tours around Wythe County. Our first stop was a two generation Horned Dorset sheep farm just outside of Wytheville that produced national show sheep and was leading the industry in artificial insemination. They showed us their lambing barn which was really neat, especially with all of the little lambs running, jumping and playing with each other. We were fortunate enough to see lambs that were born just as our bus was pulling in the driveway. After the farm we went to the local vineyard. The vineyard had a few acres of grapes, all of which was harvested by hand. The owner explained a few of the different varieties produced and showed us how it was made and where it was kept. After lunch we toured a three generation seasonal dairy farm. The farm had once been a regular dairy, then they decided to stop milking for a few years, and when they got back into the business they decided to do seasonal milking along with some sheep. They built an open air swing fourteen milking parlor, with a holding pen for 100 cattle. The cows stay on pasture between milking times which allows the parlor to be kept exceptionally clean. When asked how long it typically took them to milk, the farmer said that the “couch to couch” time was two hours; meaning their roughly 80 head heard was brought in, milked, and released and the parlor was thoroughly cleaned and they were back in the house within two hours.  After we left the farm we went back to the hotel and convention center for some contests and to prepare for the banquet. At the banquet we heard greetings from the Virginia FFA, the National Young Farmers, and a local legislator. Megan Seibel spoke about the Virginia Agriculture Leaders Obtaining Results (VALOR) program. This program has been created to teach leaders in the agricultural community about advocating for agriculture and being proactive when facing issues linked to our industry. Awards were also handed out to associations for accomplishments throughout the year. Sunday morning we heard inspirational words from Mr. Byrd, FFA Specialist, and closed convention by electing the new officers and passing the gavel to the new president. This convention was a great opportunity for me to explore different agriculture across the state and have the ability to compare it to the team’s very recent trip to China.

The State Officer Team at the Farm Bureau Young Farmer's Winter Conference!

First Thoughts on China

China isn’t very different from the Untied States, at least Beijing is not. We have gone to the cattle farm, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, the tea house, and the wholesale market. The wholesale market was huge. They were saying it’s the largest one in China and that’s for good reason. It was very interesting to see the pork section because there were few to no sanitary codes. The building was warmer than it should have been, no one had gloves on, anybody could walk by and touch the meat with their bare hands, and there were bags of meat just sitting on the ground. The cattle farm was pretty cool. They had Semintal cattle crossed with the Chinese Yellow cattle. 

They looked a lot like Shorthorns, Herfords , and a little bit of Polls. The farm was a feed lot and the biggest differences were the cattle were tied up when they ate, they stood in cement pens, they were not fed growth hormones, and workers constantly shoveled the manure instead of letting it collect on the ground. The food is very different from the American Chinese food but it has been pretty good. 

Thus far the trip has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot. I’ve made new friends with the other officers and have gained deeper appreciation for the agricultural practices back home, as well as cultural understanding for Chinese methods. Today we are headed to the Bunge plant and will get to experience the Night Food Market. I’m really excited for them both because Bunge operates in Both America and China, and the Night Food Market will probably have a lot of interesting ethnic foods.

The State Officer Team in Los Angeles, CA before departing for China!