Sutherlin FFA

Why do today’s youth not understand agriculture? In past years youth have been raised to strive and on farming and have the hope in their heart that they would be the boy chosen to inherit the family farm and girls would marry a man with a well obtained piece of land. This has drastically changed in the past 100 years. As a nation we have begun to rely more on imports of foodstuffs and the majority of our profits have come from technology and you hear the term “white collar” more often now than “blue collar”.

This may not be true around here but take a short trip three hours north and you will find a metropolis of sky-scrapers and industrial parks. The greenery in this city is far and few between. Portland is one of the biggest cities in the state. This means as a state we are more often counted as a business district than agriculturally bound, even though the biggest agricultural occupation we have in Oregon is floriculture. As a student who has spent her high-school career in the Ag room I have noticed that the people who have never had an Ag class are more oblivious to the rest of their world. Most of them have little to no people skills and could not tell you the difference between a cedar and a pine. This makes me think how they will be thrown into the world and not know how to deal with the problems that come up in their lives. As a senior you are required to take Economics, I have been learning the importance of this life skill since my freshman year. How you may ask? I have had an SAE every year. A Supervised Agricultural Experience has taught me to have patients, willingness to learn and accept your mistakes and above all it has made me a better and stronger person.

I have also had the opportunity to be part of many CDEs. These are Career Development Events. You are able to voice your opinion on many topics in agriculture today. Many of these topics are debatable. Speeches and Parliamentary Procedure are often used to see what the student thinks is the best thing to do for this topic. Speech can also mean you have a limited amount of time to outline your topic and be ready to present it. Rituals are a team of officers presenting FFA meeting opening and closing ceremonies. This is my favorite CDE. I love this contest because you are so rehearsed that it goes rhythmically. You each have individual parts but work very well as a team. You might be wondering what any of this has to do with students knowing about agriculture dealing with their food but it ties in closely. All of the skills you develop from these events and contests make a person who has the willingness to learn and will be able to properly serve others later in life. Ag students should have a better outcome in life due to the skills they have learned from their time in the Ag room. They will use these skills for the rest of their life, it may not seem like it but I have already seen this happen in my own life.