Last year some “friends” of mine encouraged me to apply for the Partners in Agriculture Leadership program or PAL for short. It’s a program that AFBF sponsors where ten people are chosen, through an application process, and put through two years of extensive media, legislative, public speaking and general leadership training. The goal of the program is to create advocates for agriculture. If accepted, I was told that it would be the absolute hardest thing I’d ever volunteered for. My friends said that it would the boot camp of ag leadership training. They said there were several trips involved, a TON of homework in between classes and that overall it would be a PILE of work.

SO, what did I do? I filled out the application, jumped up and down with my hand in the air hollering, “OOOhhhhh, pick me! Pick me!”

I was picked.

Up to this point we have gone through two of our four classes, the media and the legislative modules. I can honestly say that being in the PAL program has been the hardest thing I’ve ever volunteered for. However, I can also say that it has been the absolute best personal development training that I have ever embarked upon. There is no doubt that I have grown as an individual, as a leader and as an “advocate for agriculture”.
Here is the fact of the matter; ALL of us in agriculture should be working to be better advocates. Who better to defend our industry than us? Who better to tell our story than us? Who better to reintroduce American Agriculture to the general public than us? It absolutely does not matter if you’re in a class or a combine. We all must become advocates for what we do! If you like being out in the field then sometimes you better get out of the field and tell our story. Our existence depends upon it because after all, we are all Partners in Agriculture.