MACA Young Leaders Speak
September 28, 2015 For the past several years, one of the highlights of the annual Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) meeting is hearing from the latest crop of Young Leader Scholarship recipients. These students receive $2,000 from MACA to be used for their college expenses. In 2015, there were 10 individuals who gained this honor.
At the meeting, each student was asked a question regarding their time in the agricultural marketplace, work experiences and general views on the agricultural business. According to some, the chance to work outside with growers has been the most rewarding part of their summer internships.
Loading ...“I found out what it was like to be a corn grower,” said Chelsey Kroese of the University of Missouri, describing her internship with DuPont Pioneer. “I really enjoyed the chance to be outside and get to work with the corn seed on the field level.”
Isaac Popp, the recipient from South Dakota State University, echoed this view on following the progress of crop seeds. “I’ve been involved with the seed industry for three years now,” said Popp, who is an intern with Thurston Inc. “I try to emphasize to the growers that I’m working with that the seed they plant will produce healthy, wholesome food and that will be a benefit to a lot of people.”
Of course, catering to those within the agricultural marketplace isn’t the biggest challenge facing the industry, said the Young Leaders. “I didn’t grow up on a farm, so a lot of what I’ve seen is new to me,” said Connor Sible, a student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and working with DuPont Pioneer for his internship. “The biggest challenge for me has been to describe what I’m seeing to others.”
Alexandra Ferguson, a student at Iowa State University, agreed. “The biggest misconception about agriculture that people have is that many of them think food automatically appears on the shelves of their grocery store,” said Ferguson. “We need to have more conversations with these people to let them know what really has to happen for their food to come about.”
For this dialogue, Samuel Knauss, a student from Kansas State University, believed that talking about what agriculture does best – produce food – would be a good place to start. “I think our biggest opportunity is to be more transparent in talking about what agriculture does,” said Knauss. “It’s about not only producing more for everyone to have, but producing quality products and how we are doing this impacts the world we all live in.”
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