From Ag Girl to Ag Advocate: A Journey of Passion and Purpose
I was an ag girl, back when being an ag girl from Bonifay, FL wasn’t really cool. My dad was a high school agriculture teacher, and he LOVED all things farming. He had such a passion for it, and that passion was forced upon his wife and three daughters. I attended the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA as a baby in a little red wagon. I grew up active in 4-H, participating in both the agricultural production and consumer and leadership opportunities it provided. I won the state demonstration contest twice as a youth, once with a demonstration on napkin folding and the other with a demonstration on how to use a bandsaw when woodworking. My days after school and on weekends were spent on our school’s ag farm with my hog and steer projects. As soon as I was old enough to become an FFA member, my dues were paid, and I was thrown onto a parliamentary procedure team that rehearsed enough to end up second in the state my freshman year. Although I had been reciting the FFA creed for as long as I could remember, I finally had the chance to do it in front of a panel of judges and ended up winning first in the state. However, no national competition existed quite yet, so that was the end of that, except for the thousand times since then that the words “I believe in the future of agriculture…” get me going.
Today, I teach two undergraduate courses in the University of Florida’s IFAS/College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ Department of Agricultural Education and Communication. One course helps students critically think through various stakeholders’ perspectives of issues in agricultural and life sciences and natural resources, and the other course helps students navigate event planning and instructional design for non-formal education settings (that napkin folding stuck with me). I find my life’s pathways comical when I reflect on my childhood attitude about all things agriculture and then compare it to today’s paycheck stub. God knew what His plan was for me and really blessed me in life!
While my childhood friends all went on to do some fabulous things with their careers, I seem to be the one that connects with various people from across the state of Florida, people who I met through youth ag organizations and my own college courses back in the day. These people are now elected officials and help to lead their own communities across the state, and some even in other parts of our country. I’m also the one that my stay-at-home mom friends, when my kids were little, would ask about the production of our food and what different labels meant.
My kids are now grown, and one is a few years into a career in the military while the other is about to embark on a military career as well. I got told the other day, “I’m surprised they didn’t do something in ag like you or their dad.” To that, I always think back to the three physiological needs in life, water, food, and shelter. All three come from protecting our natural resources combined with growing a sustainable food supply. Without those things, our country is so vulnerable, thus the need for a strong military to protect them. It’s more than that, but that gets to the root of it, no pun intended.
What I came to realize later in life is that agriculture connects us all. We all have to eat, and we all have a connection to agriculture and natural resources, whether we think we do or not. I am so thankful for the passion my dad “forced” on me all those years ago.
Agriculture is an integral part of every life around me, and I’m thankful for those that came before me that could see that even when I couldn’t. Bottom line? Ag has ALWAYS been and ALWAYS WILL be cool!
Becky Raulerson, Senior Lecturer, UF/IFAS/CALS/AEC