Farmers, Ranchers and the Food Supply Chain: Share Your Story on National Ag Day

By Mark Biedenfeld, Vice President, Aligned Solutions, CHS

Growing up in rural South Dakota, surrounded by farms and ranches as far as the eye could see, I never gave the food supply chain a second thought. It was intertwined in everything I did—from calving cows to helping with the harvest of the crop—it was our way of life.

You can imagine my concern when I recently read that an astonishing 68 percent of consumers said they don’t know enough about their food and where it comes from, and 21 percent said they’re not at all knowledgeable, yet 92 percent of consumers say it is somewhat or very important to know where their food is coming from.* To me, that’s the perfect invitation for those of us working in agriculture to share everything we know to be good and true about farming. And National Agriculture Day is the perfect opportunity to showcase, educate and celebrate American agriculture.

Companies like CHS, and many others, exist to provide farmers, ranchers and their retailers with products and services they need to raise and market healthy, profitable crops and livestock. In many cases, the local cooperative is one of the largest employers in town.

Recently, CHS took a closer look at the true economic impact that CHS and local cooperatives generate across the country. The study found that CHS’ impact in rural communities supported more than 60,700 jobs directly and indirectly. That means for every job CHS creates itself, there are five more jobs supported in the community.

Having been around cooperatives my entire life I saw first-hand how farming and ranching contributed to my community. From buying equipment at the local dealership to financial support of organizations like 4-H and FFA that encourage young people to start a career in agriculture, all of it contributes to the health and vitality of rural America.

Tomorrow’s farmers are anxious to share their vision for agriculture, and that’s part of the Ag Day celebration too. One hundred students from 46 states will spend National Ag Day (March 21) in Washington, D.C., personally meeting with their elected members of Congress. They are proudly representing the future of farming and the agricultural industry.

Please join me in sharing a farm story with a friend, neighbor or colleague as we celebrate National Ag Day. If you’re lucky enough to know a farmer or rancher, tell them how much you appreciate what they do day in and day out.

*Source: TraceOne

Sustain Farming by Encouraging the Next Generation

Ryan Tipps

Managing Editor, AGDAILY.com

There are many ways that the agriculture community defines sustainability -- it can be in the stewardship of the land, the welfare of farm animals, or in the selection of seeds and crop protection. Sustainability is, and should be, the guiding principle for our work on the farm.

But one of the most important ways that we can cultivate agricultural sustainability is in how we approach and encourage the next generation of farmers and ag professionals. Their passion for the industry, both now and in the future, is what will continue to drive farming further. Connecting with those young people is so critical. By telling their stories in a positive way, giving them the tools and resources needed to thrive, and mentoring them, whether through FFA or 4-H or independently, the current generation has a responsibility to ensure that the next generation wants to follow in the impressive footsteps of food production.

There’s nothing static about the ag industry, and that includes the tools that we use to connect with this younger generation. After all, if we aren’t connecting with the farm youth, then they aren’t getting the support that they deserve. It’s a mobile-driven world, and social media has created a dynamic network for everyone to better understand the nuances of the industry and its people and the decisions that are made at every level. Sometimes that’s as simple as the shared experience of ag -- fueling the passion of our youth is camaraderie over the hard labor and solid work ethic of being raised on a farm, or the first time a youngster drove a tractor, or the knowledge that family will always be there for you and that perseverance pays off. There’s no doubt that there is value in sustainability, but what sometimes gets overlooked is there are important values in it, too.

AGDAILY.com, a National Ag Day sponsor, helps to connect the experiences of our youth and to engage them intellectually and socially. It’s important that the contributions of young farmers be recognized along with those who have been farming for decades. That’s the road toward sustainability. That’s the road for agriculture.

What Does Ag Day Mean to Me?

Sarah Novak
Vice President, Membership and Public Relations
American Feed Industry Association

What does Ag Day mean to me? In order to answer this question, I have to think back to my “summer vacations” visiting my grandparent’s dairy farm in Prairie du Chien, Wis. As a city kid, when I visited the farm I thought this is amazing and wonderful—the calves, hay bale stacks, garden—there  wasn’t a thing I didn’t love. I saw how hard my grandparents and uncles worked every day and thought, this is what I want to do. They were proud of what they did and ate from what they could grow and raise on the farm.

When I went to college, I thought there was only one answer for me—veterinary school! It turns out I was blessed that was not the path I took. I graduated with a degree in meat and animal science and went to work for a company that manufactured milk replacers for livestock. I quickly discovered the road I turned down was the right one for me—working in an office, getting to solve problems every day and doing what I love by being closely connected to agriculture.

I’ve continued down this path, working for a few companies in the animal feed industry, in international agriculture development and now working in Washington, D.C., for an association representing the interests of companies making animal and pet food.

Living in the Washington, D.C., area is quite a change from the rolling hills of Wisconsin. While I still love cheese and the Green Bay Packers, I have the opportunity to represent companies that work with farmers and ranchers each and every day. Helping our members tell their story to Congress and regulatory agencies is just as important today as working directly with farmers. Fewer and fewer people are working directly on the farms and therefore fewer people in Washington, D.C., appreciate what has is done to provide healthy and nutritious food to Americans and many other parts of the world.

So this city kid certainly appreciates today’s farmers and ranchers and remembers the hard work of my family and my many farmer friends who are tirelessly working every single day to help put safe, nutritious food on my table for my family. Thank you, grandma and grandpa. Thank you to all the great farmers and ranchers in the U.S. and around the world.

The Proliferation of Fact and Fiction

By Seth Harden, Education Specialist, National FFA Organization

Have you ever heard the adage that 77 percent of statistics are made up on the spot? I have always found this to be humorous, but a few recent articles published by The Washington Post and the World Economic Forum have highlighted just how quickly false science, conspiracy theories and other fiction can spread in our unprecedented era of unbounded connection and communication with virtually every other human on Earth. Unfortunately, agriculture is often the subject of attack.

In fact, sharing of misinformation has become so prolific that it warrants an entire field of research, including terms such as confirmation bias, echo chambers and trolling. Even Google and Facebook, which undoubtedly had a hand in creating the art of self-publishing, are developing trustworthiness scores and newsfeed algorithms to combat falsehoods.

How does this change the way we share the impactful stories and progressive science of agriculture? This all depends on how we leverage the capabilities of online platforms. In 2015, the National FFA Organization #SpeakAg Initiative challenged students to share their own agriculture stories with the masses through social media. Nearly 150 students participated and estimated that their audience was 55,000 people collectively. We can be certain that many of these students are housed in their own echo chambers, electronically socializing with others who have similar mindsets, but the impact of such a small group of students cannot go unnoticed.

If all or even a portion of the National FFA Organization’s 629,000+ members were to be trained in effective advocacy through credibility, respect and literacy, imagine how the future of the agricultural consumer-producer interface could improve for the better. Informed tweets, posts, shares and snaps could reach millions and stifle misinformation with pure saturation of fact. Students have demonstrated the ability to impact the present through modern era tools like social media, but more importantly, they will be the influencers of public perception, consumer trust and production practices as adults in the not-so-distant future.

National Ag Day provides student leaders in agriculture with the opportunity to put these skills to the test not only locally, but also in Washington, D.C., a place where discussion and collaboration are a way of life. National Ag Day serves as a symbolic reminder of the need to advocate 365 days of the year for an industry that feeds us, clothes us and provides solutions for other facets of society through a complex interconnectedness of an ever-advancing set of technologies that could be our friend or foe at any moment.

Illinois Agricultural Legislative Day with FFA

I had the opportunity recently to take part in the Illinois Agricultural Legislative Day, which brings more than 1,000 FFA members to the state capitol in Springfield to meet with our state senators and representatives. Students fill and deliver baskets with various items provided by state commodity groups and show the importance of agriculture to our state’s economy.

I knew agriculture was a big contributor to jobs in Illinois, but the latest information provided said more than 25 percent of the Illinois workforce is directly or indirectly related to agriculture - more than one out of every four people in the state! That easily makes agriculture our largest employer, and a sector that continues to grow. Nationwide, more than 23 million jobs are involved in some facet of agriculture, 17 percent of the civilian workforce.

As young people today are beginning to make decisions about their future, agriculture is definitely a field (no pun intended!) that should be considered.

Careers in agriculture are widely varied. Beyond the traditional view of agriculture as strictly crop or livestock farming, opportunities exist in finance, communications, law, government, sales, technology, and more. A knowledge of modern agriculture can translate into almost any career discipline.

Agriculture is one of the fastest-changing industries today, embracing cutting-edge technologies in the pursuit of sustainable food, fiber, and fuel production. High school students today will very likely be employed in careers after college that don’t even exist at the present time!

One of my favorite quotations reads: “Once in your life, you will need a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, and a preacher. But every day, three times, a day, you need a farmer.” I would add that you also need all of the people who support the farmers in myriad ways. Agriculture is vitally important to each and every one of us, and for a young person looking for a stable, interesting, and fulfilling career, choosing agriculture is the way to go!

One Bale of Cotton

by Amy Sarkissian

Driving through the cotton belt during harvest season is always a treat. Fields of soft, white cotton seem to go on for miles. For a lot of people who have never seen a cotton field, they’re amazed at how the fields look almost as if they’re completely covered in snow when the crop is ready for harvest. Cotton is an old crop, and cotton is a commodity crop here in the United States. Although once grown predominately in the southern states, cotton is now grown as far north as Kansas and as far west as California.

Cotton is also a pretty remarkable crop. I never knew all of the ways that this simple, white fiber could be used. For example, if we look at one bale of cotton, which is roughly 500 pounds of raw cotton lint, you can produce an almost unbelievable amount of finished products.

Let’s break down that one bale of cotton:

• With one bale of cotton, you can make approximately 800 men’s dress shirts, or approximately 325 pairs of men’s jeans.
• With one bale of cotton, you can make approximately 850 women’s blouses or shirts, or approximately 350 knit or woven dresses.
• With one bale of cotton, you can make approximately 1,200 pillowcases.
• And how about those personal care items we all enjoy using as consumers? You can make approximately three thousand diapers from one bale of cotton. Yes, three thousand. 

Aside from the products we wear and consume, cotton is also something we come in contact with almost every single day. You may even have some in your wallet right now…that’s right! Our “paper” currency is made of a cotton and linen blend, and one bale of cotton yields approximately 313,600 $100 bills. Cotton is a fiber that is rich… in history and uses!

Technology Innovations are Changing Agriculture for the Better

By Isabella Chism

As we celebrate National Agriculture Week and near the first day of spring, it’s only natural to think about how far this industry has come and the innovations that continue to change agriculture for the better.

On our farm we are embracing innovation as we use global positioning satellites (GPS) and auto-steer guidance systems to prepare the soil, plant and harvest our crops. This technology benefits the soil and the environment and it can help increase crop yields while lowering input costs.

Additional innovations for agriculture will include the development of hypoallergenic foods such as peanuts and tree nuts, along with new modified seeds to help farmers in developing countries grow better crops without pesticides.

Dairy farmers continue to face the challenge of hiring willing workers in a labor intensive business. Finding people to work on dairies can be difficult because the hours are long and the job is tedious. Robotic milking systems for dairy cattle can help as the robotic arms attach milking machines to cows and automatic take-off units reduce the number of workers needed. The advanced software that runs the system also collects useful data on each cow for the farmer, including how much milk she is producing, feed intake and changes in her body condition to monitor health.

Farmers are increasingly interested in illustrating how they live their commitment to care when producing food, and technology plays an important role in their efforts. For example, spring means the birth of new life on the farm and ranch and  many modern day farmers have installed web cameras to provide  live streaming of  their  the livestock in the barns, corrals and pastures.

Social media is another area where farmers have made great strides in connecting with consumers and providing a feel for farm life. Farmers and ranchers, like other Americans, are using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms in record numbers and finding common ground in conversations about food. 

As we celebrate the bounty of the land and our livestock, I encourage you to take a moment and connect with a local farmer, rancher or a consumer. Share your story and answer their questions. Farmers and ranchers continue to feed and fuel our lives and consumers are a vital partner.

Isabella Chism, an Indiana farmer, is vice chair of the AFB Women’s Leadership Committee.