Young Agriculturist Explains Her Chosen Livelihood

Editor's Note: This week, the Future Farmers of America celebrates National FFA Week. This article is written by local chapter treasurer Casey Nielsen, who explains how the agriculture industry and agriculture as a whole is often misunderstood.

As a young agriculturalist, I am faced daily with common misconceptions of what agriculture is. I even find myself getting lost in the mix up at times. Agriculture by all means is not the common dictionary definition, nor is it just farmers as most of my peers think; it is not just what I interpret it as either, it is all of these things and so much more.

When people hear the word agriculture everyone thinks of farmers, crops, and livestock. In some ways this is because of the dictionary definition, “the science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products: farming”.

Agriculture is bound to be misconceived with this definition; that has set the tone for the general public’s opinion. In fact agriculture is the nation’s largest employer, with more than 23 million jobs, with 1 in 5 jobs in private industry being agriculturally related. That’s 17 percent of the civilian workforce involved with some aspect of American agriculture.

A more appropriate definition is this, “Agriculture is the science, art and business of using plants, animals and natural resources to produce food, fiber and other useful products”. While this is very similar to the dictionary definition it doesn’t make one think of a farmer as much.

Many students in Middletown High School have a skewed view of the members of the Vo-Ag program. Being a chapter officer for two years and a very proud an active member for four years it is my job to represent our chapter well and to educate my peers and the public about what we do.

I have endured the name calling and the questionable looks of my peers since I started high school. Farmer, Hick, Redneck, Hillbilly, are all names most Ag kids face, as well as the comments like, “Ew, they smell like an animal,” or “they are just dumb farmers.” The ignorance of my peers about what agriculture is affects me as well as all the other students in the agricultural program every day. They do not respect us; to them we all clean up animal feces and pick corn or drive tractors.

While these are in fact some of the things we do, it is not all we do. What many of them don’t know is, agriculture can be anything from creating an alternative fuel source to milking a cow, or creating wildlife habitats, or being a golf course manager. For the Ag students who work with livestock, tractors and corn, being called a farmer is accurate we do not deny that. At the same time we also know that that is not all there is to agriculture.

To me agriculture is part of my life, it is part of everyone’s life they just don’t know it. “We feed the world” is a quote every Ag kid will say proudly, but we also provide roads, cars, fuel, household products, toiletries, pets, medicine, and amusement for the world. 99 percent of agricultural careers are related to biotechnology, communications, education, and agribusiness.

I am the 1 percent who pursues a career in agricultural production. I raise livestock, but I also represent millions of fellow agriculturalist who struggle to educate the public about all there is to agriculture, and against the misconceptions of agriculture. 

Agriculture is a livelihood, one filled with some hardships and several rewards. It takes on many different definitions because it is too huge to be held down by a single definition. Agriculture is the nation’s #1 industry, 20 percent of all careers are in the field of agriculture.

The dictionary gives it a basic universal meaning, and to the ever day average Joe it’s misconceived as all farmers. For someone who eats sleeps and lives agriculture it’s all of these and something else entirely. None of these things are right but none are wrong. They all make agriculture what it is today.       

Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook

Have something to say? Blog on Middletown Patch here.