Every single one of the 650,000 is also a unique individual, with their own background and interests. But there is at least one thing they have in common. They all wear a blue corduroy jacket, because they are the Future Farmers of America (FFA).

If the only things you’ve heard about FFA have been in country songs, you may be surprised to learn that many FFA members are not farmers. In fact, some don’t have any connection to agriculture at all.

That was certainly the case for David Townsend. “Having not come from a farm or any kind of agricultural background, I was unaware of where our food, fibre and clothes come from,” Townsend tells me when we met recently.

I had wondered how he came to join the FFA, and he says it wasn’t actually a decision; it was an accident. “I was placed into an animal science class by mistake,” he laughs.

Once in the class, though, he quickly got involved in the variety of activities offered by FFA.

“I stayed involved in agriculture education because of these incredible experiences and opportunities, along with the amazing people who have impacted my life for the better,” Townsend says.

Those experiences and opportunities have led Townsend to his current position as the national FFA president, and it’s the kind of story that gives you faith in the leadership abilities of our future generation.

However, it turns out that these stories are not uncommon for FFA members. Townsend’s peer and colleague DeShawn Blanding, national FFA vice-president, is another young man who has risen through the ranks of FFA.

After enrolling in his freshman year with no agriculture experience, Blanding eventually got elected as president of his local FFA chapter as well as state vice-president for South Carolina during his high school career.

It begs the question: is there something special about Townsend and Blanding that brought them to their leadership positions? Or is there something special about the FFA experience? Are leaders born, or are leaders made?

A formula for development

The national FFA organization mission is all about developing potential in youth, including their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success.

How do you develop a leader? According to FFA, the formula is a robust school-based agricultural education model, which is comprised of three main components:

• Classroom/laboratory
• Supervised agricultural experiences
• FFA activities

Members must be enrolled in an agricultural education program in their local school where they learn about agri-food topics such as horticulture, veterinary medicine, food science, etc. These classes look different in each school and are largely dependent on local resources and the teacher’s area of expertise.

Agricultural educators teach the classes but are also the advisers for the local FFA chapter.

The classroom/laboratory component is often the gateway into the world of FFA. For Victoria Harris, who is serving as the national FFA secretary, her entrance came in the form of an elective course in her sophomore year. “I took veterinary assisting. This is how I found myself in an ag class, and I quickly joined FFA,” Harris recalls. “Pretty soon, I found myself shadowing a veterinarian and raising livestock with my FFA chapter.”

Opportunities like job shadowing are another part of the agriculture education model. Hands-on supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs) allow FFA members to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom and try out careers in a low risk way. Experiences range from internships and research projects to community service days.

The entrepreneurial payoff

Many of the experiences also have an entrepreneurial element. FFA members can develop their own agricultural business or collaborate on a school-based enterprise where they make financial and management decisions.

These are popular options and feed into the entrepreneurial drive of many young people. In fact, a study conducted in 2015 found that 42 per cent of teenagers surveyed intend to be entrepreneurs or self-employed.

With first-hand experience running these ventures, FFA members are ready to take on the business world for themselves.

The third component of the agricultural education model engages members in FFA competitions and development activities at local, state, and national levels. The variety of activities is impressive, with career and leadership development events incorporating options including agronomy, marketing, and public speaking.

While technical skills are important, a major focus for FFA is to foster employability skills, also called soft skills. However, according to Townsend, there is nothing “soft” about communication or teamwork abilities. “Josh Bledsoe, COO of the national FFA organization, who I greatly look up to, dislikes the term ‘soft skills,’” Townsend tells me. “Instead he refers to them as ‘power skills’ because they give you the power to be successful in a career and in life.”

These skills have certainly served Blanding well. As a freshman, he described himself as painfully shy. But he had an adviser who believed in him and invested time and energy to break that shell. Blanding now credits the career and leadership development activities of FFA for the growth of his voice and his passion for agriculture.

Says Blanding, “I now understand the importance of using my abilities to take the initiative to make an impact, motivate, and empower.”

Inspiring careers in agriculture

Involvement in FFA does more than foster business and “power skills.” Sometimes it informs career aspirations. For instance, her veterinary assisting class exposed Harris to new career opportunities, and she now intends to pursue a career as a food animal veterinarian.

Blanding also had his mind opened to new opportunities through his agricultural education experience.

He had entered high school planning to become a doctor, but through his FFA experience he had a shift in his thinking. “I recognized the importance of agricultural diversity,” he says, “and the need for environmental sustainability.” He is now majoring in natural resources and engineering.

Townsend says there are many ways to “engage with food production and processing even before it gets into a kitchen for chefs to use.” After completing his degree in plant science, agriculture and natural resources, his hope is to “own and operate a farm growing specialty crops — fruits and vegetables.”

FFA members (as well as other non-FFA youth) can also learn about careers in agriculture on a new website called agexplorer.com.

The website was developed in collaboration between FFA, AgCareers.com and Discovery Education. Over 235 unique careers in agriculture are profiled and include information on education requirements, typical employers and even salary recommendations.

Through AgExplorer.com, youth can see that agriculture careers align with interests including environment, technology and business, and they also see that all 235 careers are valuable opportunities for FFA members to apply their knowledge and skills.

As the strategic career success partner of the national FFA organization, AgCareers.com believes those FFA members will help fill agriculture’s shortage of skilled labour. “This is a key pipeline of talent as North America prepares to lead the way in feeding 10 billion people” says Eric Spell, president of AgCareers.com.

The 650,000 blue jackets are not only the future farmers of America, they are part of the future of agriculture around the world. Blanding, Townsend and Harris know their career prospects are bright. The technical knowledge, and the power skills they have fostered through FFA will enable them to tackle current challenges and grasp future opportunities.

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The institution is about 30 km south of downtown Chicago, and in many ways, it is a standard high school. It has lockers, classrooms, and a gymnasium.

However, there is something unique about CHSAS. Every single student here is studying agriculture.

CHSAS stands for Chicago High School of Agricultural Sciences. The school sits on 72 acres, 39 of which are a working farm. There is also a greenhouse, an aquaponics lab, livestock barn, bee hives, and a fully equipped food science lab.

As I travelled through the halls, the pride and enthusiasm were palpable. Sheila Fowler, the school’s vice-principal, notices that unique feeling at CHSAS too. “Our relatively small student population allows CHSAS to maintain a family-like atmosphere which is characteristic of many agricultural organizations throughout America,” she says.

And it’s true. There is a family-like quality to the interactions here. The two young women who led me around barely stopped talking, eagerly telling me about their experiences as students, as we moved from one area of the school to the next.

Something for every interest

Like most high schools, student course selections are fairly generalized for students entering their first year. However, by Grade 11 each student at CHSAS selects a career pathway to focus on as they complete their high school journey.

Pathway options include agricultural education, agricultural finance and economics, agricultural mechanics and technology, animal science, food science and technology, and horticulture.

This school year a biotechnology pathway was also added to round out the lineup of options.

For my first stop, my tour guides led me to the school greenhouse, home of the horticulture pathway. The greenhouse was beyond steamy on that summery day, so we moved our conversation to the classroom where the walls were covered with landscape plans. At the back of the room was a business centre, complete with computers and stacks of textbooks on horticulture and plant propagation.

I heard from the horticulture students that while they do a lot of planning and paperwork, the learning is definitely focused on hands-on experience. Within each of the pathways, students develop theoretical knowledge in classroom instruction and hands-on technical skills through practical projects. According to Fowler, the agriculture classes “are designed to give students ownership of projects. Students have a vested interest in making sure their work is successful.”

Each spring the horticulture pathway works together with the ag mechanics pathway to put together a display for the Flower and Garden Show held in downtown Chicago. It is an opportunity for students to put their skills to the test, competing against other schools and also established businesses. They also plan, advertise, and facilitate a plant sale each year for the local community.

Building business skills

Business skills are top of mind in all of the pathways. Every student at CHSAS is a member of Future Farmers of America (FFA), which requires them to complete, among other activities, a Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). An SAE can take many different forms, such as entrepreneurial ventures, internships, or even school-based enterprises.

At CHSAS, one of the school-based enterprises is a farm stand that sells produce grown on the school grounds. It is managed by the ag finance and economics pathway, whose students were sitting in front of computers, working on their final projects as I entered their classroom.

I asked this group if they enjoy attending such a unique high school. A young man piped up and said “it’s great. You get to actually do stuff, not just read about it.” He explained that one of their first projects that year had been on investments. They chose real stocks and competed against each other to see which selections were most profitable.

“So what kind of stocks did you choose?” I asked. They responded that a portion of their selections had to be agri-business stocks, and they had been surprised by the number of agricultural options.

“I never knew that there were so many companies that sell tractors!” exclaimed one student.

That lack of familiarity with agriculture businesses is probably because these students don’t come from a farming or agriculture background. Every student here lives within the city limits of Chicago.

Challenging stereotypes

The school’s mission statement is ambitious, saying CHSAS “… provides opportunities for diverse students from across the city to study agriculture with the goal of developing marketable skills as well as college level competencies.”

The integration of academic and agricultural programs helps students see beyond old farming stereotypes. There may be a barn, tractors, and crops on campus, but students quickly realize agriculture is more than primary production, and that agriculture is good for our economy, environment, and culture.

Not surprisingly, there are stereotypes about the school. Many people in the city of Chicago refer to CHSAS as “the farm school,” and a few of the students I spoke to were initially apprehensive about attending, based on that description.

Despite a country nickname, CHSAS has a track record of success that attracts students from across the city. In 2016 the school received a 1+ rating, the highest score from the Chicago Public Schools.

Other statistics are impressive too: a four-year graduation rate of 81.1 per cent, college enrollment at 79.8 per cent, and a dropout rate of only 2.1 per cent.

Learners into leaders

In addition to specific agricultural competencies, there is a clear emphasis on developing employability and soft skills, such as communications and teamwork.

“Students know that it’s important to be academically strong, but they also know it’s equally important to be a good worker,” says Fowler, who is also the FFA adviser for the school.

FFA activities are designed to foster leadership skills and personal growth in youth. Competitions, conferences and conventions equip students with essential skills for career success.

Through participation in these youth development activities, the students gain confidence in their abilities and have the chance to interact with leaders in the agricultural field.

In fact, CHSAS prides itself on connecting with the agricultural community. During my visit, a steady stream of students headed to a classroom where interviews for a summer internship at a prominent agri-business were taking place.

It turns out that a pathway to an agriculture career is fairly common. On average, approximately 37 per cent of a CHSAS graduating class declare an ag-related major as they enter college. Those who move on to jobs within the agri-food sector often come back to the school to speak to students about their career and offer guidance and advice on entering the workforce.

The success of CHSAS highlights the value of emphasizing experiential learning and soft skills. Much can be learned from the integration of agriculture, education, and a strong youth development system like FFA.

With the pervasive labour shortage facing the agri-food sector, wouldn’t it be great to see 37 per cent of all graduating high school classes choosing agriculture pathways?

Whether or not the road leads to agriculture for individual students, the most important thing is that their agricultural training helps them leave high school with competence and confidence. Fowler knows that her graduates are ready to meet the world head on. “Students have the skills necessary to thrive,” she tells me. “They can conduct themselves as young professionals.”

For more information on CHSAS visit: www.chicagoagr.org/.

This article first appeared as ‘Check this Chicago school’ in the March 14, 2017 issue of Country Guide.

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What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a common question that adults ask young people. Popular answers include pro athlete, doctor or lawyer, or you might just get a shrug of the shoulders and an “I don’t know.”

Unfortunately, careers in agriculture and food rarely make it to the top of these lists. But perhaps this is because youth have a difficult time identifying careers in agriculture beyond “farmer.”

The popular perception of a career in agriculture is that it is in the field or in the barn, working long hours in tough conditions for low pay.

Indeed, there is enough reality in this common perception to make it tough to sell the idea of building a satisfying, rewarding career in agriculture.

In fact, negative perception is one of the factors which contributes to the serious shortage of the agriculture labour in Canada.

Identify the issue

If you work in the agri-food sector you have probably heard the numbers from the Canadian Agriculture Human Resource Council (CAHRC). The current gap between the supply and the demand for agri-food workers is 59,000, and the result of that gap is that $1.5 billion in sales are foregone each year.

And it’s getting worse. CAHRC estimates that within 10 years the Canadian agri-food sector could be unable to find workers for 114,000 jobs.

Perhaps most scary is that these numbers only reflect the situation in primary production. The labour shortage is pervasive across the food system, impacting the productivity and profitability of agribusinesses in this country.

It is not just farm workers we require. The sector needs food scientists, salespeople, meat cutters, robotic engineers… you get the picture.

Focus on Gen Z

So what can be done to tackle the issue? Temporary foreign workers will need to be an ongoing source of labour for the agri-food sector. However, there is another group that we should be focusing our recruitment attention on: Gen Z.

You have probably heard of the Millennials, but maybe not Gen Z. So pay attention. These are the youth who are born between 1993 and 2011. They make up 22 per cent of the Canadian population and will be entering the workforce over the next 20 years.

Many Gen Zers are sitting in high school classrooms right now, ready to make their career decisions. The question is, how do we direct their attention to careers in the agri-food sector?

It is a question I have been asking for the last two years as a 2015 Nuffield Canada Scholar, partly thanks to funding from the Country Guide family of publications.

Search for solutions

The premise of a Nuffield Scholarship is to investigate agriculture around the world in order to identify approaches and strategies that can be applied to industry issues. As a Nuffield scholar, I had the incredible opportunity to travel internationally to research my selected topic: agriculture career education.

My travels took me across Canada, as well as to France, Scotland, England, New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica and the United States.

Not surprisingly, many other countries around the world are also experiencing labour shortages in agriculture. Indeed, some of the countries I travelled to, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, were facing the same perception issues that we have here in Canada. Youth are quick to name “farmer” as their prime example of an agri-food career, and the urban/rural divide continues to place pressure on the image of agriculture by affecting what young people think it means to work in the sector.

Find the “Ah-Ha” moment

At the beginning of my scholarship, I was warned that “ah-ha” moments could arrive unexpectedly, and that they could have a major impact on how I viewed my topic. One of those moments hit while I was in Australia.

After a series of back-to-back meetings in the heart of Sydney’s CBD (Central Business District), I was walking downtown amid a crowd of hundreds of business people. I wondered: how many of them know that dozens of agribusinesses are centred right next to the big investment firms and ad agencies?

If people don’t know these businesses exist, why would they ever think of working for them?

Shortly after, I passed a giant three-storey Apple store. I immediately thought “that is a place where young people want to work.” It’s visible. It’s edgy. It makes you want to see yourself there.

I started to shift my thinking to marketing, considering how companies like Apple and Google build a loyal customer base while also becoming a desirable place to work. It turns out there is a formula for building brand loyalty, and it applies as much to selling ag careers as it does to selling iPhones.

However, for the formula to work, the agri-food sector needs to play a major role, using its three steps (exposure, engagement, and influence) to encourage youth to select a career in agriculture and food.

• Read more: Three ways to recruit the next generation of ag employees

Consider Nuffield

A Nuffield scholarship helped me help our industry. It could help you too

In the agri-food sector, we often focus on growth. We think about the growth of our crops and livestock, the growth of our profit margins, the growth of our customer base and brand recognition, and more.

However, sometimes we forget to focus on the growth of ourselves.

If you are passionate about your business, committed to the future of Canadian agriculture, and looking for a personal growth challenge, you should consider applying for a Nuffield Scholarship.

Speaking from experience, here are three of the biggest impacts a Nuffield Scholarship will have on you:

• Apply your passion: Applying to Nuffield is about seeking information on a topic of personal importance and interest. Do you have an issue on your farm that you want to address? Is there a challenge facing your industry? A Nuffield Scholarship is your chance to explore that through international travel. Think about the difference you can make for Canadian agriculture through applied research.
• Open your mind: Nuffield is about a global experience. There is nothing like talking to farmers and agribusiness people from other countries to highlight the similarities and differences agriculture faces around the world. You will be challenged to look at things from a global perspective and to consider approaches and solutions you may never have considered before. You will grow professionally, and you will grow personally.
• Build your network: If you talk to anyone who has completed a Nuffield Scholarship, you will hear that it opens doors. You will have the opportunity to become friends with people around the world, many of whom will open their homes to you and help you on your journey. Nuffield is also a key to open the doors to new business contacts who are eager to share their knowledge and learn from your experiences.

If you have questions, reach out to the past and present scholars to hear their experiences.

Don’t miss this opportunity! Nuffield Scholarship applications are due each year on April 30.

Find out more at www.nuffield.ca.

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