The 14,000 FFA members in Iowa are celebrating “FFA week.” The program teaches high school students about the world of ag industry.
Webster City FFA instructor, Kurt Veldhuizen, doesn’t see any let up in the program that is around 90 years old. “I think it is very strong, and when you look at ultimately FFA’s tie to agriculture, that’s what we’re rooted in and the future of agriculture is very strong. My big message I always try to get to my students at the high school is agriculture has and it will continue to evolve. Today we do things way different than we did 100 years ago,” Veldhuizen says.
He tells students there will always be careers in agriculture available. “When it comes down to it, as long we’re on earth, as long as there are humans on earth, we will need agriculture in one form or another, and that’s really the exciting things for these kids,” Veldhuizen says. He also tells students the advancing technology is constantly changing agriculture and there may be new jobs available by the time they enter the workforce that weren’t around when they started school.
“With young kids looking for careers and jobs I always tell them what great job security,” according to Veldhuizen. “We are always going to need to feed people. By 2050 we are going to need to feed 9 billion, that’s the big push in agriculture right now. You know, what great job security to be a part of that industry.”
There are some 600,000 FFA members nationwide. You can find out more about the FFA at: www.ffa.org.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)