Ag Day Research Paper

There are several activities to compete in and degrees to earn and receive in FFA. Members compete at local, state, and national levels in the fields of public speaking, Ag mechanics, dairy-cattle, livestock, poultry, dairy food, meat, and rabbit evaluations, floriculture, ornamental horticulture, parliamentary procedures, and nursery/ landscaping skills. The FFA also gives out four degrees to its members. The Discovery Degree is given to seventh and eight grade students. The Greenhand Degree is given to high school freshmen with knowledge, goals, and skills of FFA. After completing two semesters of Ag course work, you receive the Chapter Degree, with which you are entitled to wear a silver pin. The last degree, the State Degree, is obtained for outstanding achievements and for development of leadership skills. The receiver, however, must have also worked at least a minimum of 300 unpaid hours, and they receive with this honor a golden emblem pin.

For my civic engagement-learning project, I choose to volunteer at the Unity Common Ground Fair. I have been to state fairs but not a fair like this one. Honestly, I never even heard of this fair until Mark Kavanaugh e-mailed all KVCC students about it. The Common Ground Fair hosts the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) every year. Through Mark’s email, I contacted Anna Libby, Volunteer Coordinator, to find out what I needed to complete before I could volunteer. I did enjoy my time working at the fair, for I did interact with all versions of diversity.

“ There are your radish seeds everyone.” Said Mr. Susick. The whole class looked around at each other with a blank confused face. It was the first day of junior year in my English class. Mr. Susick started talking about how our first assignment would be to grow radishes. We were all thinking, how in the world does gardening relate to English class. I had heard about this project from previous juniors but none of them said what the real reason was. All Mr. Susick said was that you need to let the project teach itself and get into nature. He left us with one bit of information along with the requirements to start. The main goal of the assignment was to extract your own universal truths. For the first time in English class,

On Tuesday, May 24, 2016 I observed Mrs. Megan Mayer and her kindergarten class at Roosevelt Elementary School. When I got to her class, they were preparing themselves to go to the school garden and learn about fruits, and planting. For this activity they partnered up with another kindergarten class right next door. With the two classes we all walked outside to the back of the playground where Roosevelt has a miniature garden. Between both of the classes there were three groups, A, B, and C as well as three sections of the garden activity. One group would sit down with the other kindergarten teacher Mrs. Peterson and they would draw what they had learned in class previously, another group would go with a different teacher who worked at the

“Learning to do, Doing to learn, Earning to live, Living to serve” is the motto of the National FFA Organization. This historical organization is guided by dedicated educators teaching in the field of agriscience. Agriscience educators are in high demand in Alabama and across the nation. Agriscience educators teach in a project based learning environment that reaches all students by teaching about innovative agricultural topics and working with new technology all while traveling across the state and country with the FFA.

While the Midwest may be “the breadbasket of the United States,” the Central Valley of California is the entire rest of the Thanksgiving meal on the table for the country. With its fertile soil, Mediterranean climate, and expansive flat land, the Central Valley produces more than 250 different crops that produce more than $20 billion annually, meaning it provides over half the produce grown in the United States. Recent droughts, recession, and growing urbanization in California have changed the conversation around farming practices and the large role family farms still play in the state. Popular opinions circulating the urban areas were calling into question the sacrifices farms were making throughout the drought, believing they got a

In this day and age, less than 2% of people in the United States is involved in the production of food for the remaining 98% of citizens in the country. Among discussions occurring in the 2%, one common topic is a lack of education about agriculture in the general public. Prior to high school, I am ashamed to admit, but I was one of the people who would have answered that my milk came from a grocery store. As a project one year, I went to the grocery store and interviewed shoppers as to their knowledge about agriculture. Many of them had a similar belief as I once had, food starts at the grocery store. Upon my entrance into high school, I quickly became involved in the National FFA Organization. Many of my family members gave me crazy looks

Texas is among the top agricultural producing states in the United States. In 2015, Texas ranked number three in producing agriculture is the United States (FAQs). Texas has experienced drought conditions within the past few years. The High Plains combined with California, Produced agricultural products worth $56 billion in 2007, accounting for a large portion of the nation’s food production. Together the two states accounted for half of all

At the Georgia Olive Farm, Mrs. Vicki Hughes gave us a lecture on how the olives are grown and picked. Then, we watched a brief video about the process. At the University of Georgia Tifton campus, we were fed boxed lunches from Chick-fil-A, learned about the Future Farmstead from Dr. Kvien, toured the campus with Dr. Douglas and Ms. Coursey, and visited the Tifton Campus Dairy. At Rutland Farm and Market, Mr. Greg Rutland and his co-worker gave us a tractor and trailer ride through their farm and petting zoo. We were able to learn about each and every aspect that goes on there, from growing strawberries to Christmas trees. At Pike Creek Turf, my father, Jaimie Allen, gave us a lecture and tour concerning the turf grass farm and wash facility. Also, we were served a catered dinner that night by Carter’s. Pike Creek is my family’s farm, and it was a wonderful blessing to be able to go there as one of our

Training for these events started in January. The team gathered every Tuesday and Thursday before school to practice the events. In early January we invited a group of high school students

Throughout my childhood, I have participated in a local 4-H club. In this club, I became a part of our town’s biggest festival, the Potter County Fair.

First of all, California is a huge producer of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts in America. They produce over 90 percent of America’s walnuts, kiwis, plums, celery, and garlic (Cornett, par.6). This information shows just how broad and important California agriculture is. Also, California generates more agriculture related revenue than any other state, approximately $37.5 billion dollars each year (Cornett, par 6). Because of this information alone, shouldn’t California’s thriving

“Economists at the University of California, Davis said that agriculture, once a $44 billion annual business in California, will suffer a financial hit of $2.2 billion due to revenue losses and higher water costs” (Associated Press, 2014). Many farmers are going out of business because the production costs have increased with rising inflation, while revenue has decreased. Others have reduced their farmland plantations which decreases the crop production. Some of the affected crops include oranges, pistachios and rice. One example of how this affects the nation is the California almonds. “California [is] the source of eighty percent of the world’s almonds” (Bloomberg, 2014). This year farmers had to come up with new tactics to rescue the nut from drought “by diverting the water used for vegetables and drilling more water wells to keep the trees hydrated” (Bloomberg, 2014). Farmers are not the only group of workers affected by the drought.

“It is more of a community put on event. It’s a group effort involving Miles Community College, 4-H, and the Miles City Chamber of Commerce,” says Scott Rehbein, FFA adviser.

With California having 76,400 farms and ranches received $54 billion output in crops in 2014 is considered the nation’s leader in agricultural output. Their agricultural large quantity includes more than 420 commodities, which produces nearly half of the United States grown nuts, fruits, and vegetables. The most valuable crops are cannabis, oranges, grapes, nuts, cotton, and flowers. US consumers across the nation purchase several crops that are produced in California. Their exports climbed to 21.4 billion in value representing a 16 percent increase over last year’sexports.