FFA Week - February 20-27_2021

Agriculture is part of our daily lives—from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. During FFA week, more than 700,000 FFA members across the country will share the story of agriculture as part of National FFA Week.

Today, FFA provides the next generation of leaders who will change the world. As the top school-based youth leadership development organization in the nation, FFA continues to help young people meet new agricultural challenges by helping members develop their unique talents and explore their interests in a broad range of career pathways. FFA members are our future leaders, our future food-suppliers, our future innovators and so much more!

Whether it is through service projects or community gatherings, National FFA Week is a time for FFA members to raise awareness about the role the National FFA Organization plays in the development of agriculture’s future leaders and the importance of agricultural education.

National FFA Week always runs Saturday to Saturday and encompasses Feb. 20, George Washington’s birthday. This year, the week kicks off on Feb. 20, and culminates on Saturday, Feb. 27.

The National FFA Board of Directors designated the weeklong tradition, which began in 1948, in recognition of Washington’s legacy as an agriculturist and farmer. A group of young farmers founded FFA in 1928, and the organization has been influencing generations that agriculture is more than planting and harvesting — it involves science, business and more.

National FFA Week will be featured on social media as well. Follow the #FFAweek hashtag on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and don’t miss @NationalFFA Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat posts, including posts from the National FFA Officer Team while on the road.

The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to more than 700,000 student members who belong to one of the more than 8,600 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization is also supported by more than 8 million alumni and supporters throughout the U.S.

GENNIFER MATLOCK

Agriculture Education. Agriculture Education, Relates to education and extension, including youth mentoring, agricultural education department assistants, PALS mentors and student coordinators.

LIBBY MOONEY

Agriculture Sales – Entrepreneurship. Member owns an agricultural enterprise or business that could include sales of feed, seed, fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, agricultural equipment, machinery or structures. Enterprises could also include the merchandising of crops, livestock, processed agricultural commodities, horticulture products, floriculture, and forestry items at either the retail or wholesale level.

LILY SMALLEN

DEMOCRAT NEWS

Printshop

Agriculture Sales-Placement. Student works for an agriculture related enterprise or business. This could include sales of feed, seed, fertilizer or agricultural chemicals, agricultural equipment, machinery or structures. Activities could include the merchandising of crops, livestock, processed agricultural commodities, horticulture products, floriculture, and forestry items at either the retail or wholesale level.

GARRETT GRAHAM

Beef Production Entrepreneurship. Individual who owns the enterprise that uses the best management practices available to efficiently produce and market beef.

131 South Main Street • Fredericktown

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573.783.3366

AVA LAUT

Diversified Livestock Production. Involves the use of the best management practices available to efficiently produce and market a combination of animals for two or more of the livestock-related proficiency award areas.

JUNIOR KELLEY

Environmental Science and Natural Resources Management.

Students receive practical experience concerned with the principles and practices of managing and/or improving the environment and natural resources.

KATIE ROHAN

Equine Science Placement. Student works for an employer providing experiences in horse production, breeding, marketing, showing and other aspects of the equine industry.

• PHILIP FALCH, DVM • ANDRE OBERLE, DVM • BEN ROTHLISBERGER, DVM • SCOTT MIER, DVM • JOHN SWINFORD, DVM • JOE FASIG, DVM • DEVON PRIESTER, DVM

573-783-7232

713 WEST MAIN STREET • FREDERICKTOWN, MO

www.fscb.com

573-783-2348 • Fax: 573-783-5669

1183 BUSINESS RT. 67 • FREDERICKTOWN, MO 63645 www.fredericktownanimalhosp.com

“Fredericktown FFA members are putting the FFA Motto Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve to use through their Supervised Agricultural Experience Programs”

Submitted by Sophia Rehkop and Bailey White, Chapter Reporters

The FFA Motto is simply a brief statement that provides FFA members with words to live by as they experience the organization. Nothing better exhibits the use of this motto then through the FFA Proficiency Award Program. A program that has seen many Fredericktown FFA members recognized on the state and national levels throughout the years.

By encouraging students to fully engage themselves in a program that allows them to learn what they are doing by doing it, the FFA empowers students to take on projects that potentially can make students money while helping the student figure out if that venture is something that he or she wants to do for a career.

By keeping accurate records related to these projects, students can then learn additional

career skills such as filling out applications. Such applications are then judged on the area, state, and national levels. Recently thirteen members of the local FFA chapter submitted sixteen proficiency award applications at the area level. Eleven members of the Fredericktown FFA chapter were named Area Proficiency Award winners. Those winning first place and their respective category were: Gennifer Matlock – Agricultural Education, Libby Mooney – Agricultural Sales Entrepreneurship, Lily Smallen – Agricultural Sales Placement, Garrett Graham – Beef Production Entrepreneurship, Ava Laut – Diversified Livestock Production, Junior Kelley – Environmental Science, Autumn Spain – Equine Science Entrepreneurship, Katie Rohan – Equine Science Placement, Emilie Parsley – Food Science Technology, Sophia Rehkop – Outdoor Recreation, and Curtis Lewis – Poultry Production. All of these students will advance to

competition at the State FFA level. If selected as state winners they will compete for national recognition later this summer.

The FFA Proficiency Award program recognizes outstanding FFA members for their Supervised Agricultural Experience Programs (SAEP) and their outstanding leadership, both of which are the basis of the FFA Motto. There are forty-nine national award areas that recognize FFA members for achievement in activities leading to careers in agriculture.

FFA members develop leadership skills and are preparing for one of more than 300 careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture.

FFA programs allow members the opportunity to practically apply knowledge they gain in the classroom to real-world experiences. They also measure their expertise through local, state and national competition.

Agricultural Education and the FFA Is For You Submitted by Sophia Rehkop and Bailey White, Chapter Reporters Scientist and researchers predict that the world population will peak some time near the year 2050.

The population will be over nine billion as compared to today’s world population of over seven billion.

Who will feed these people? A better question might be; who will produce, process, distribute, research, and market the food and fiber it takes to support a world population of over nine billion people?

Opportunities for a career in agriculture exist around every corner and will always remain the most important industry of any country. Thus a question has been asked, “Why should I enroll in an Agriculture Education class?” The answer is really simple when you consider the many different career options available in the world of agriculture.

Many changes are occurring in agriculture today.

There are fewer and fewer full-time farmers and the

industry is becoming more and more specialized.

Many times the public perceives the agriculturist as a producer of food with little need for technical know- how. Consequently, agriculture is not viewed as a glamorous occupation. Thus, many parents quickly suggest that anyone could be a farmer…an occupation to be tolerated as a necessary end of society, but not one to be sought after for a career.

We live in a country with the largest, most progressive agriculture system in the world, yet many children and adults believe that milk and eggs come from cartons in the grocery store. Twenty-one percent of all jobs are relate to the food and fiber industry.

Thirty percent of all jobs outside metropolitan areas are in the agriculture sector.

The primary objective of Agriculture Education is to prepare students for jobs in an agriculture career. The Vocational Education Act of 1963 and the Vocational Education Amendment of 1968 expanded the

definition and emphasis of agricultural from solely production agriculture to also include agriculture supplies and services, agricultural mechanics, agricultural products, agricultural resources, forestry, horticulture, and other agricultural occupations.

Since agricultural is such a large employer of our nation’s population, parents need to take a look at what a course in Agricultural Education has to offer their children. After all, what other courses makes use of reading, writing, math, chemistry, science, physics, business, home economics, art, music, develops leadership skills, and offers students many hands-on experience?

If your son or daughter is not enrolled in an Agricultural Education class for the coming school year, contact your local Agriculture Education instructors, Rusty Allgier, Laura Bittle, or Mike Graham for more information.

EMILIE PARSLEY

Food Service. - Involves students working for wages and/or experience in the areas of food preparation and food service as well as management of food distribution systems.

AUTUMN SPAIN

Equine Science Entrepreneurship. Student owns an enterprise or business that provides experiences in horse production, breeding, marketing, showing and other aspects of the equine industry.

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573-783-3659

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SOPHIA REHKOP

Outdoor Recreation. Individual works at an outdoor recreational facility for public or family use including, camping, recreations fishing/hunting areas, water sports, shooting preserves, guide services, and vacation cabins/cottages.

CURTIS LEWIS

Poultry Production. Individual owns the enterprise that uses the best management practices available to efficiently produce and market poultry or eggs.