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I recently had the opportunity to chaperone 4 area FFA students to Jefferson City, Missouri, for the Farm Bureau Youth Leadership Days. This was my 5th year taking FFA students on this trip and one thing has never changed, each year the kids tell me “my mom and dad say there is not a future for me in agriculture so I’m not going to come home to the farm after college” or I hear, “there is no money in farming and I don’t want to be poor.” Every year I explain to these FFA kids who are Juniors in high school, what a bright future there is in agriculture and how many new programs there are available for beginning farmers in the way of low interest loans, guaranteed loans, etc. I explain to these kids that farming today has evolved and changed with technology and the demands of consumers, and these changes have created many new opportunities for farmers.
This year, one of the kids told me she planned on having a career in agriculture. She wasn’t sure how she was going to accomplish this goal, but she knew she would find a way to stay involved with agriculture. It’s people with optimism like this young lady who are finding new ways to stay involved in agriculture. We’ve all heard the saying, “Anything worth having in life is worth fighting for.” In my opinion, this is true when you look at a career in agriculture. Sure there will be tough times, and many days when you work longer and harder than you would at an 8 to 5 job, but when times get tough, FARMER UP and work that much harder.
When times were tough for our parents and grandparents, they didn’t run away, they stood their ground and worked that much harder to provide for their families and our country. I know from talking with my grandparents that farming 30 years ago was no walk in the park like the movies want viewers to believe. They had just as many worries and struggles as we do today in farming but they never gave up. So when times get tough, or you hear a young person say there is no future in an agriculture career, FARMER UP and help spread the TRUTH, help tell the story of Agriculture!