Being an Advocate

The Minnesota FFA Officer Team joined 35 other young leaders from across the state on June 14th-16th in Mankato, MN for the Minnesota Agriculture Ambassador Institute.

Monday
Our journey began with a hearty breakfast at a local Perkins with a couple of teammates. After finishing our eggs, bacon, and orange juice we met up at the conference center where we were greeted by Jason Welter, the 2010 Minnesota Pork Ambassador, and Amber Skluzacek, second runner up Pork Ambassador. The conference kicked off with a short introduction from Robin Kinney, who serves as the Assistant Commissioner in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Trudy Wastweet of Minnesota Pork Producers Association, Tara Meyer the Executive Director with the Minnesota Farm and Food Coalition and Robin Kinney organized the conference. Each are strong voices and help advocate the values and experiences in agriculture. After introductions and personal stories where told, Amanda Nolz gave a short presentation. Amanda is the editor for Beef Magazine (http://beefmagazine.com/) and a fifth-generation rancher from South Dakota. She spoke on how to respond to negative press toward the industry and shared personal struggles and successes. Later in the day, Amanda also presented on the use of social media tools to reach the consumer and help them understand the agriculture story. Following a lunch with a taco bar we examined the philosophy "FISH! Catch the Energy-Release the Potential" with Dan Durheim from American Farm Bureau. The idea is based off of the Seattle Fish Market and if the "FISH!" philosophy is followed can allow you to have fun at work, make someone's day, live in the moment, and choose a positive attitude. This gave us a fresh look at each day! Wrapping up our day we went bowling and had a pizza social!

Tuesday
Bright and early we loaded up three large vans and headed out to the land. Our first stop was Christensen Farms in Sleepy Eye, MN. (http://www.christensenfarms.com/) Rod Hamilton head of communications and Minnesota Representative for District 22B welcomed us to the site. Rod shared the background of the 25 year old company and its rapid growth. He also specifically spoke on current issues in law and the market affecting the pork industry. During our time at Christensen Farms we also received a thorough tour of the feed mill. The next tour was just outside of Sleepy Eye, at Port Haven Dairy. Our hosts were Tom and Mary Portner, who proudly showed us their unique dairy barns, the milking parlor, and Brown Swiss herd. Upon saying our goodbyes to the farm we headed back to town to have lunch at a local park. Brad Finstad, past Representative and Executive Director of Center for Rural Policy and Development, joined us for lunch and spoke about his experiences within politics and the need to look at changes in government through a rural lens. We reloaded the vans and traveled to Balzer Inc. (http://www.balzerinc.com/). We were provided the opportunity to tour their plant with Randy McMahon President of the company. Balzer manufactures shredders, grain carts, and manure equipment which is sold in the US and eight other countries around the world. The final event for the day was an etiquette dinner presented by Dan Durheim. We are now more prepared at how to properly eat a five course meal. In addition, Gene Hugoson, the Agriculture Commissioner, spoke to the group about his current possition, the upcoming issues, and answered questions about how he reached the point he is at. His inside insight was intriguing.

Wednesday
Our final meal together was breakfast at Famous Dave's in Mankato. An interesting place for breakfast, but very good even though it was not ribs! The morning consisted of a forum with Brad Finstad, David Preisler, Executive Director of the Pork Board, and Randy Wanke, Executive Director of Pioneer Hi-Bred, who spoke on issues facing agriculture and how we as advocates could handle these pressing issues. With this information and information from the past two days we wrote out an Advocacy Action Plan. The conference finished on an exciting note as we invited Farm Boy Brand Clothing to attend the event. We participated in a survey and brainstorm session for new design ideas.

The three day Minnesota Agricultural Ambassador Institute Conference filled each participant with knowledge not only from activities and reading, but also from tours out in the field of agriculture. This conference helped to prepare young leaders to go out into the world and have the drive and desire to advocate for our great industry!

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Jason Troendle

Two scoops of team bonding.

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Well, ladies and gentleman, the Minnesota FFA Officer Team was reunited Monday and Tuesday to prepare for one rockin' summer!

MONDAY...
the Constitutional Officers arrived in Shakopee, at the Minnesota Corn Growers, for our first SOPD (State Officer Professional Development). Bright and early, we had the awesome opportunity to work with Sheryl Meshke as we began to develop our key messages and theme for the year. Sheryl works for AMPI as the Vice President of Public Affairs. She tells the AMPI story and advocates for the dairy farmers who are members of their organization.
After lunch, we headed to AgriBank in St. Paul to talk with Becca Yaklich about the importance of social media in our industry today. How many of us use email, Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube on a daily basis? I personally don't know how I'd get through the day without checking my Blackberry! All of these are forms of social media, but how can we use them to our advantage? Becca pointed out that all of these are great tools to share our messages about agriculture, ag education, and FFA in the next year. I think Becca's job is pretty cool - she gets to use Facebook all day long!
The team began to congregate at full force that evening (minus Erin, who had to head home for a banquet because she STILL had school!), picking up a few Region Presidents at Buffalo Wild Wings and then heading over to Feed My Starving Children for an AWESOME night of service. Feed My Starving Children is an organization that provides meals to hungry kids all across the globe. We helped assemble meals that arrive in a prepackaged bag containing a chicken substitute, vegetables, soy, and white rice. Don't knock it until you try it! The fourteen MN FFA volunteers, along with about 45 people from organizations, packed more than 26,000 meals in a little over an hour! If you do the math, that feeds 72 kids for a full year. Pretty impressive and completely rewarding!

TUESDAY...
the team reassembled (including Jared and his lack of wisdom teeth) at the Chapter House on the MN State Fair grounds, connected to the CHS Miracle of Birth Center. I didn't believe that monsoons came to landlocked states, but it DOWN POURED all morning! We spent the morning preparing for SGLC, which is fast approaching. Greenhands - get excited for one outstanding week! After trying out our facilitation skills with Ms. Amber Seibert, we all began to part ways. Maddie, Kirsten, and I met up in St. Peter for some Dairy Queen - my new favorite tradition!

MN FFA members - prepare yourselves for a summer filled with premier leadership, personal growth, and career success! The State Officer team can't wait to meet you at camps, conferences, and maybe even the Great Minnesota Get Together! :) Keep us posted on what YOUR chapter is up to this summer on the new Minnesota FFA Association page wall (LIKE this on Facebook!).

Enjoy the sunshine!
Stationed by the plow,
Liz

Educating Elementary Students

I traveled to South Minneapolis to "Hit The City" with the Morris Area FFA Chapter on Wednesday for an Ag in the Classroom activity. The goal for the day was to educate elementary students in an urban area about food; where it comes from and how it is made. I arrived at our first of two schools, Northrop Urban Environmental Elementary, at around 10:00 AM. Jeff Knobloch, Region III President, had just arrived with with a trailer full of animals for the kids to see and learn about. I was excited to see one of my old friends, Esther Koehl, was there to present. She was beckoned inside to start while a couple guys set up the fence for the animals. I decided to venture inside and check out these presentations. In the classroom, students ranging from preschool to fifth grade learned about various topics. They had a chance to match each part of a hamburger with their raw ingredients; for example wheat would match up with the bun. In the picture above, Sami Searle, is presenting this portion of the curriculum and I even had the opportunity to help her out. (even more exciting to me was the smart boards that many of the classrooms had, as you can see in the picture it is a great way to teach!) The students also had a worksheet where they connected father, mother, and baby by drawing lines between them such as boar, sow, and piglet. They were even able to put a soybean and corn seed in moist cotton ball to see it germinate and grow in the coming days. In addition they received pig noses that they decorated (you can see them in some of the photos). As a part of the presentation, the kids had a chance to go outside and see some animals. There was a kid, a baby goat, a beef heifer, a five day old dairy bull calf, two adult sheep, and a rabbit. Near each animal was an FFA member to talk to the students about them. My new friend Taylor was nice enough to let me feed the calf (which completely made my day!!) for all the kids to see. After every student in Northrop Elementary had seen the animals and experienced the presentations it was time for lunch. We went into the gym and their principal, Kathy, thanked everyone for all the work they had put in for this event. Then about ten kids of varying ages came in and each one thanked us for what they appreciated most that day (SUPER cool!). For lunch, we were lucky enough to eat with the students! It was exciting to talk to them about their lunches and make a connection with everything they had learned that day. Finally, it was off to the second school, Wenonah Elementary, which turned out to be within a mile or two of the airport, which turned out to be a bit annoying for the FFA members working with the animals outside. They made it work though. By this point, they were giving the presentations for the third or fourth time and had it down pat. Before I knew it the day was over. I would like to thank everyone who helped put this event on and to the members of Morris FFA chapter for doing such a great job with these students. It was a fun day! I even got to catch up with some old friends like Jenna Moser, and Lauren Kill among several others. I also made some new friends including Tom, Jake, Kelly, Brooke, and Dylan. I hope to see more events like these in the future!

Kathy speaks to us in the gym.

One of the kids wore his Grandpa's FFA jacket!!

I hope everyone is getting excited for camps along with other summer FFA activities, because I definitely am! Hope to see some of you at graduation parties in the coming weeks as well!


Stationed by the door,

Justin J. Crowley