What is an Ag. Issues Platform, Anyway?

Post made by Addie Guthrie, State  Secretary

“I believe in the future of agriculture” The first line of the FFA Creed, memorized and quoted by all FFA members. This quote contains countless meanings, interpreted differently by the minds of many. One thing is certain, however, to believe in the future of agriculture, it is essential that we educate ourselves, and inform others on current trends and issues facing the field of agriculture. By staying up to date, we are not only securing knowledge to benefit ourselves, but also enabling us to share our information with others to create an understanding amongst the agriculturalist, the government representatives, the urbanite, and the youth alike.

This year, your State Officers have taken on a new task: digging deeper into the issues and current information surfacing in the field of agriculture, and forwarding all of our findings on to you! In addition to following our blogs highlighting our travels and events, an Ag Advocacy Blog has been created where we will create and post articles based on interesting topics we research. Our blog has several diverse topics, sure to interest readers of all sorts. You will find articles that fall under topics including Beef Quality Assurance, Global Ag Issues, Environmental Stewardship, Sustainable Agriculture, Crop Sciences, the Timber Industry, Livestock Sciences, the Equine Industry, and the Diary Industry.

Living in a country where only 2% of our population is associated with the agriculture industry, it is essential that we, as agriculturalists, feed not only their bodies, but their minds! We need to be heard and tell our story so that the people of our nation knows where their food is coming from, how it is produced, and how exactly it plays into the roles they play in their daily lives. Our team challenges you, Virginia FFA, to educate yourselves so you can educate others. Follow our Agriculture Issues Blog and even do some research of your own. We challenge you to be heard, tell your story, and advocate for agriculture!

Founding our Future: SPC 2012 – Washington D.C.

Post made by Addie Guthrie, 2012-2013 State FFA Secretary

Monday

On the morning of Monday, July 23, I woke up ready and excited to head to Washington DC with Dustin for the State Presidents Conference. Living only an hour and half from our nation’s capitol, I had traveled to DC several times before, but this adventure was going to be different. I was going to drive into the city (which was a tad bit frightening in itself) and meet other State FFA Officers from across the country, while participating in workshops and trainings for the delegate process.
We left my house around noon and got to our hotel in DC just before two in the afternoon. After checking into our rooms and taking pictures with the National Officers, we ate an awesome lasagna dinner and listened to several delegation proposals which we would have to rank in importance in the days to come.
For reflections we went to the roof of the Farm Bureau Building where we looked out across the DC skyline at sunset. Later on that night, when it was time for everyone to head back to their rooms, I got to scratch one very cool thing off my bucket list….getting stuck in an elevator…a crowded one! I wasn’t just stuck with random strangers either, I was stuck with 8 other officers and 4 national officers! We made the best of our hot, cramped, 20 minutes together by playing games and telling stories until a mechanic came to our rescue.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning after breakfast the conference toured Arlington National Cemetery. We got to witness the Changing of the Guards Ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After our tour and an eventful metro ride back to the hotel, we had a session on how to “tell our story” and prepare for Congressional visits the next day. After dinner in the evening we took a tour of the monuments. We saw several different monuments including WWII, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Monument, FDR Monument, and so many others. I am always overcome with such great pride for our country when thinking about the contributions and sacrifices made by those individuals honored by the DC memorials. Our reflections that night were on the steps of the Jefferson Monument. We focused on if those individuals had not stood for what they believed in and had lived their lives without action, we would not be able to lead the lives we currently do.

 Wednesday

On Wednesday Dustin and I had the opportunity to meet with some of our government representatives. We met with Congressman Griffith and Goodlatte, and also Senator Webb’s agriculture assistant. We both shared our stories and passion for the FFA and agriculture, and also thanked them for their support. It really is so important that we build relationships with our representatives. They are the ones who hold the decision making abilities for our country, and we learned this week that, “if they aren’t hearing from us, they are hearing from someone else.” Even when it’s just to talk about how much agriculture means to you, or how excited you are about a good crop yield, our representatives need to hear about it so we can ensure a bright political future for the agriculture industry!
Later on in the evening, everyone attended an Alumni banquet where we mingled with other officers and several Alumni. The keynote speaker for the banquet was a true FFA celebrity… the first female National President, Jan Eberly!! She brought a great message about sharing our story with everyone, to shed a positive light on every situation, and to always serve. Dr. Larry Case and my group leader from WLC 2010 were among some of the other alumni present that I had the opportunity to mingle with. Before going to bed that night, a large group of officers crowded around a piano in the lobby while some played songs and others sang and swing danced. It was only the third day in DC and I had already made so many close friendships!

Thursday

On Thursday we started our day with breakfast and revealing the 6 selected delegate proposals which will be voted on at National Convention. We then travelled to the Newseum (Like “museum” ..but..with news). This was a really cool museum because they had newspapers and documents that predated the 1700’s! They also had that day’s newspaper from every state and several different countries on display as well. They had several levels dedicated to important events which marked news history, including 9/11 where they had the 340 antennae which was on top of one of the destroyed buildings on display.
After leaving the Newseum we all went to eat lunch at Union Station. We then went to the USDA building where we got to hear from several ag industry leaders and White House representatives, and then participate in a question/answer session. We also got to witness RFD-TV present the National FFA Organization with a check with a generous donation of 1 million dollars! This is the largest, unrestricted donation the FFA has ever received. Thank goodness for those sponsors that believe so much in our organization and our future! Later on in the evening, we ate dinner at Clyde’s in Chinatown.
Reflections on this night were especially touching. We evaluated how state officers were relevant to the success of FFA and wrote our relevance on a huge poster across one of the walls of the conference room.

 Friday

Friday, we spent the majority of our morning in our proposal group meetings, discussing and planning the delegate process at National Convention. I was in the group to develop an Agricultural Summit. Our group came up with a lot of really good plans and is very excited to facilitate the voting process at National Convention! It’s crazy to think that the decisions we are helping to make, and will make at Convention will affect so many members in years, and maybe even generations to come!
After our group meetings, everyone broke up and had time to explore DC. I grouped up with other officers and friends from Wyoming, New Jersey, and Montana and we toured the Air and Space Museum and the Library of Congress. Before going to the Library of Congress we saw a sea of blue jackets covering one of the fields in front of the Capitol, which turned out to be Week 7 of WLC students. We went up to visit them and I got to see and visit with the one and only, Zach Wakeman, current WLC facilitator, past VA State Officer, and past Strasburg FFA Officer! After mingling with members for a while, our group went to a metro station and made our way to Georgetown Cupcakes. We never actually made it there…it was a long walk, so we settled with getting milkshakes at a groovy burger joint in Georgetown.
Once back at the hotel, we ate dinner and had a session on first impressions. DID YOU KNOW, if you make a not-so-good first impression, it takes 16 more positive interactions with that person just to make up for it? It is much easier to always make a good first impression, rather than having to work so hard, so many times over, in order to do things right. After that eye opening session, we walked through the lit up streets of DC towards the Washington Monument. It was a fun walk; the whole conference sang through the streets and cherished the last few hours we had together with our new friends. We sat in the grass at the base of the Washington Monument and the National Officers left us with a powerful message about our purpose and inspired us to capture that passion in our hearts. After several minutes of silence and thinking, we all stood up and made our way back to the hotel. We spent our final hours of the night and early morning taking pictures, exchanging information, and vowing to keep in touch until we would all meet again at Convention in October.

All in all, this week truly taught us to tell our story and share our passion in every outlet possible. There are countless ways for us to express our love for our organization and the agriculture industry. We are Founding our Future in the best way possible, through the best organization possible!