At the Youth Leadership Conference

I'm at the 4-H Center in Columbiana this weekend attending the annual ALFA Youth Leadership Conference. The state's Young Farmers Committee is responsible for facilitating two of the workshops: Ag Jeopardy (pictured) and Addressing Misconceptions About Agriculture.

Many of the delegates do not come from an agricultural background, and most will go into careers outside of agriculture. We hope that our conference will help them develop into stronger leaders in whatever fields they choose to enter, but we also recognize we have an opportunity to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of agriculture.

The continued success of American agriculture doesn't just depend on production and profitability, it depends on the public allowing us to continue farming in a way that's productive and profitable.

Building relationships and sharing information about our industry with future leaders is one more step we can take today to make sure we'll still be farming tomorrow.

Back from Mobile

I left home on Friday but now I'm finally back from Mobile and the Alabama Farmers Federation's 86th Annual Meeting. Our Young Farmers Committee was responsible for four programs during the event: Miss Alabama Agriculture Pageant, Excellence in Agriculture competition, Talent Find Contest (I served as emcee), and Discussion Meet competition (I served as moderator).

Our Young Farmers Business Meeting was Sunday night, and I was fortunate enough to be elected as our committee's chairman for 2008. It became official during Monday's AFF Voting Delegate Business Session, and I'll now serve as an ex-officio member of the AFF Board of Directors through 2008.

I'm excited for the opportunity to learn more about how our organization works and take an active part in moving it forward. After receiving the Federation's 2008 calendar of events, it looks like I'll be away from home approximately 60 days in 2008 on AFF Board or Young Farmers related events.

It's going to be an interesting year...stay tuned!

On the road again

I'll be working up until the middle of the morning, and then it's off to the ALFA Youth Leadership Conference at the 4-H Center in Columbiana. The event is sponsored by our Young Farmers program, and our state committee is responsible for leading one of the workshops. The conference runs through Sunday morning, but I'll be coming back after the workshops wrap up on Saturday afternoon.

This comes after I took Tuesday off to "assist" with the Alabama Ag in the Classroom program's farm tours. Turns out, all I had to do was ride one of the buses and be available to answer questions some of the teachers had. We toured a catfish farm in Perry County and then went back to Tuscaloosa (where the workshops were taking place) to let the teachers see the effects of the drought on non-irrigated corn, cotton, and soybeans.