Presidential Candidate Anita Schneider Putting her Passion for FFA and Ag Education into Action!

I believe in the future of agriculture with the faith born not of words but of deeds. FFA just isn’t about farmers anymore; educating our young people about agriculture is very important because they are our future leaders. These young people will have to be the ones who will feed and clothe the ever growing population. As our society learns to prolong life, the agricultural world will have to learn new methods of sustaining these lives. They need to be aware of the number of opportunities that agriculture offers to them. But education of these young people is just a part of my advocacy for agriculture.

Farmers and agriculture are essential in our food system, without farmers we would all starve. There are very few foods produced on farms that are immediately edible. Food processing is required to turn farm produce into food to feed our families. We rarely stop and think about how many people it takes to make meals appear on tables. One can see how many lives agriculture affects. We need to educate the urban world as to where their food, clothes, homes and even the paper they write on comes from. What I do know is that there are stereotypes that exist about both groups that sometimes keep us from reaching out and finding true understanding. Almost all food processing in the developed world is done at an industrial scale. The supermarkets where we buy most of our food, purchases their supplies directly or indirectly from other companies, these companies buy their ingredients from other companies and so on until someone pays the farmer for the produce to feed the cycle. If we could take every part of agriculture out of a person’s life what would be left—if you think about it – not much.

We also need to keep the leaders of our country educated about how much it takes to produce these agricultural items and encourage them to keep providing funding for the education of agriculture, as well as, the farm programs to the farmers who provide these products. Every person is touched by agriculture in everything they live in, clothes they wear, paper they write on and even the milk they pour on their whole grain cereal in the morning. We also need to keep in mind the number of jobs that the agricultural world provides. After all, where would this world be without agriculture?

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me - schneid2@ruraltel.net
Thank you and I appreciate your support,
Anita Schneider