CARBONDALE — SIU Carbondale played host to 513 high school Future Farmers of America members Wednesday as part of the annual FFA/Farm Bureau Acquaintance Day.
Students from 32 schools in the southern half of the state spent the morning in SIU’s Student Center meeting college students in agriculture, local farm bureau representatives and others working in the ag industry.
Lindsay McQueen, manager of the Jackson County Farm Bureau and event organizer, said the purpose of the event is to get students excited about agriculture and aware of the opportunities in the industry they can pursue later in life.
“We want to get them familiar with the farm bureau,” McQueen said. “We talk to them about college, talk to them about careers in agriculture, and let them hear from some of the students studying the ag sciences in the college here.”
One of those students, John Edgar, an ag business major from the Ava area, was a presenter at Wednesday’s event. He saw it as an opportunity to get high school students thinking the possibilities of working in the agriculture industry.
“A lot of these kids may not be thinking about a career in agriculture, because they have a very narrow view. They see the farmer and perhaps the seed salesman and think that is all there is,” Edgar said.
The industry today is more robust, he said, encompassing genetics, environmental sciences, animal sciences, even law. Edgar praised local farm bureaus for the outreach they do in events like this, which ultimately help change some minds of young people.
“I think the farm bureau is doing an excellent job in helping change perceptions (about farming) from the old man in overalls to the scientist in the lab,” he said.
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