FFA student leaders use cyberspace to tell story of American agriculture
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| By Doug Schmitz
Iowa Correspondent
WOODBURY, Tenn. – As the seventh generation to grow up on her family farm in Woodbury, Tenn., Emily Nave is well-versed at telling the story of American agriculture – especially when using cyberspace during this time of social distancing and self-quarantine due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“With technology prospering, more and more people are turning to social media to find information,” said Nave, who’s studying agricultural communications at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Currently, she serves as the FFA’s 2019-2020 Tennessee State Secretary, and as a National SpeakAg ambassador, having also enjoyed being active in Collegiate FFA, Farm Bureau and other groups on campus.
“Sadly, I grew up watching HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) commercials and at first believed false information about agriculture, even though I grew up on the farm,” she said.
Her family’s farm, Heritage Hollow Farm, is a cow-calf operation of 50 cows as well as sheep for showing and market. She has been showing livestock with her sister, Hannah, since 2007.
“At a young age, I saw that other groups had beat us to the table and told our story before we even realized it,” she said. “From then on, I wanted to be sure my story and the industry’s story was told in the best light.
“Luckily, I was not the first to see this,” she added. “I followed several blogs of Farm Women in my state that were already sharing their story, and wanted to find my voice when it came to online advocacy.”
Nave is one of many student leaders from FFA, 4-H, Agriculture Future of America and Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences who participated in National Ag Day (March 23), which celebrates American agriculture, providing an opportunity for those in the industry to share, virtually, the importance of agriculture with a broader audience.
“National Ag Day gives students from agriculture youth organizations the chance to work together and share with our national government leaders the importance of agriculture and agriculture education,” said Celya Glowacki, National FFA Organization advocacy and literacy officer.
“The skills the students learn this week, they’ll be able to use as they move forward in life, and strengthen agriculture along the way,” she added.
Originally, FFA student leaders were scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., that week. Instead, they worked together, virtually, to discover how they can continue to be advocates for the agriculture industry, while telling the important story of agriculture throughout the nation.
Glowacki said National Ag Day is an opportunity for others to learn how agriculture provides safe, abundant and affordable products.
“As we provide virtual programming for our agriculture students this week, we are able to not only help flatten the curve, but also broaden our reach regarding the story of agriculture,” she said.
Nave said there’s no better time for a strong online presence than right now.
“As a Speak Ag ambassador this year, National FFA helped us find our voice in online advocacy,” she said. “I found I enjoyed sharing my story through vlogs. I am active on Facebook and Instagram on my personal, and #SpeakAg account (@emmy_nave and @emilynave_speakag) to share agriculture topics as well as ways to advocate.
“My biggest goal is to spark conversation,” she added. “Most of my videos are one to two minutes about a controversial topic in agriculture. I plan to continue to share these videos and more even after my term as an ambassador because everyone deserves to know where their food comes from.”
Upon graduation, Nave said she plans to continue advocacy efforts, and better Tennessee and U.S. agriculture.
“I also plan to return to the farm and transition our farm into an agritourism site to bring more people into agriculture,” she said.
Like Nave, Michelle Stangler participated in National Ag Day online. Growing up in Watertown, Wis., she was raised on a small dairy farm, milking around 50 cows in a tie stall barn.
“After selling the cows a day after Christmas in 2018, I wanted to become more of an advocate for the agriculture industry as it has influenced my decision for my future career,” she said.
“The idea of sharing the message of agriculture virtually was made because of the many advancements made in technology every day,” said Stangler, who currently serves as Wisconsin FFA State vice president. “Social media has exploded these past few years. [It’s] where people get their information from.”
She said one of Wisconsin’s nicknames is “America’s Dairyland,” and right now, many FFA chapters are trying to take action in helping the dairy industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Several dairy farmers around the area are getting paid less and forced to dump their milk because of how the ‘Safer at Home’ order had closed businesses and schools,” she said. “Many chapters from around the state are taking the initiative in donating gallons of milk to their local food banks and making yard signs that say ‘Support Dairy #DairyStrong,’ [which] are only a few examples.
“We are ‘Living to Serve’ (the last line of the FFA motto) during these different times, and will live up to that challenge. We want to make a difference in what we all believe in – agriculture.”
Stangler said once the communities knew FFA’s purpose and what the organization was doing, they also wanted to get behind the cause.
“One way I am sharing the message of agriculture is with my virtual ‘Chicken Chat Workshop’ on Zoom with National FFA Eastern Region Vice President, Tess Siebel, and a few other State FFA Officers, with FFA members from over Wisconsin and the United States,” she said.
For example, Stangler shared a story of how she was once afraid of holding a chicken but was later successful at the Poultry Evaluation Career Development Event.
“This workshop is only one way I virtually shared a part of the message of agriculture,” she said, “but wherever I go, I continuously support the message, whether it is posting a picture or encouraging others to support products made in the local area in Wisconsin.”
After her year of service as the Wisconsin FFA State vice president, Stangler will be an incoming freshmen at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, double majoring in agriculture education, and agriculture marketing and communications.
“I want to continue to stay involved in the family atmosphere of agriculture, whether it will be in TV/radio reporting, or as a marketing specialist,” she said.
Grace Long has lived in the small town of Sheldahl, Iowa, her entire life. Although neither of her parents are involved in agriculture or live on a farm, she said she has four bee hives, and raises poultry for show with her brother.
Over the past year, Long has served the Iowa FFA Assocication as the 2019-2020 State Reporter.
“I am currently a freshman at Drake University in Des Moines, studying law, politics and society and strategic political communication with the goal of becoming an agricultural lawyer, lobbyist or policymaker upon graduation to continue advocating for the agriculture industry,” she said.
She said there are two main avenues she uses to share the story of agriculture online.
“My personal social media accounts as well as the social media accounts of my state’s FFA Association,” she said. “Working together with one of my teammates, State Secretary Natalie Jefson, we run all the social media for Iowa FFA.
“When working with my personal accounts, my long-running project has been sharing facts and a behind-the-scenes look at how I manage my beehives,” she added. “I take a lot of pictures and videos of everything I do when I work in the hives, and then afterward, I will create graphics with short explanations for my social media.”
Long said if she has learned anything during her time in FFA, it’s that the agriculture industry has such a great community of support.
“Although we aren’t connecting in the same way right now due to COVID-19, some projects I’ve worked on throughout my year as a state officer and Speak Ag ambassador have allowed me to continue to connect with students, the community and consumers during this time.
“Last fall, my teammate and I started going on media visits to chapters around the state to gather content for assorted association social media needs,” she said. “I ended up doing 14 different media visits, and during this time, I have been using the footage I collected on them to create videos showing what agriculture students around the state learn about and do at the local level.”
From chapter animal farms to greenhouses, to Supervised Agricultural Experience projects (SAEs), Long said she has captured many aspects of agricultural education – and has been working to share what happens at the local level to the rest of the state.
“I think it’s just nice to see these stories that bring you back to a little slice of normal during all this where we can see students describe what they are passionate about, and how agriculture and FFA have impacted their lives for the better.”
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| 4/29/2020 |
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