Field Trip 2
John Frame
This year I was awarded a scholarship to attend
the 2012 Agriculture Future of America Leaders conference. The conference was
November 1st though November 4th in Kansas City, Missouri.
This is the second year that I have attended and I participated in Track 2 of
the conference. The conference is divided into 4 separate tracks. Through this
conference, I have experienced and learned a lot dealing with leadership and agriculture.
The track that I attended focused on
communication with leadership and in the agriculture industry. Delegates got
the opportunity to listen to several keynote speakers, which were both
inspiring and eye opening. One of the speeches during the Leaders in
Agriculture Award Dinner really impacted me. The man who was speaking was the
founder of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and was an avid photographer. He
traveled all over the world helping those with hunger problems, bringing them
and their communities food. Halfway through his presentation, he showed
pictures that he has taken on his travels. The pictures were not pleasant to
look at and there were very humbling. The people photographed were starving
individuals just trying to stay alive. His message was that life is an ovarian
lottery. We do not ask to be born with the circumstances that we have, but it is
what we are given. The speaker then said that anybody who was in that conference
room already won the lottery. The people in that room almost always know that
we can get food and will have fantastic opportunities. His final message was we
have opportunities to share with others who have not been given such good
tickets. The choice is ours as to what we will do with our winning tickets.
Another speaker that presented was Dr. Jay Lehr.
Dr. Lehr has been in the agriculture industry for a very long time and is proud
to be apart of it. The main message from his speech was to share the message of
agriculture with people who do not know about agriculture. He pointed out that
the agriculture industry is great at sharing information but within the
industry it’s self. This self-sharing has lead to many problems such as the
spreading of lies about the industry to the general public. But through the
power of communication, the agriculture industry can remove those
misconceptions and lies and give the general public the real image of
agriculture. 
This conference has had many positive impacts
on me as an individual. I have learned many skills and gained much knowledge
that I can use in my future. Overall, the conference was fantastic and I hope
to attend next year.
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