The Same Thing EVERYDAY.
Squat, unhook, pickup, walk 25 steps exactly, set down, hook up, walk back to the next one. Squat, unhook, pickup, walk 25 steps, set down, hoop up, walk back.
Repeat.
Repeat again.
And over and over again, the mindless intensive labor of moving irrigation pipes overwhelmed my body as I felt like an absolute loser. Why? The previous 12 months of my life consisted of traveling the state, advocating to legislators about agriculture, hosting leadership conferences, engaging with industry professionals, presenting workshops to students, and learning something from every individual I came across.
And now, here I was back in the small town of Ferndale, California occupied by 1500 people and of course over 15,000 cows. Don’t get me wrong I would’ve LOVED to interact with the people or the cows, but someone how I found myself moving six different irrigation lines each consisting of about 40 pipes, morning and night.
The little to no human interaction combined with only physical labor, began to flatten the peak of information I was learning about the beloved agriculture industry. With my wired headphones, I’d place them in my ears begging for Spotify radio to play some good jams.
Adjusting my Future Within the "Future of Agriculture" Podcast
After I'd exhausted my music options a month in, I received a text from a friend recommending “The Future of Agriculture” podcast by Tim Hammerich.
As I pushed play on a random episode, I listened intently to my very first episode entitled: "Future of Agriculture 105: How Farming Maggots Can Convert Waste to Feed with Olympia Yarger of GOTERRA."
“Farming Maggots?” I thought. “What the heck did I get myself into?” This Australian-based waste management company redefined the idea of food waste through decentralized waste management. Their company’s primary goals consisted of managing food and animal waste by using insects of which then the byproduct could be used as a feed additive. This alternative approach tackled two issues with a single innovative solution.
Shocked by how little I knew about food waste and that maggot farms even existed, I sprinted down the rabbit hole of never-ending podcasts educating myself literally about the future of agriculture.
My situation this particular Summer presented a unique challenge to me where I was blessed with time to mentally focus on educating myself. As we broaden this perspective, we must understand how many agriculturalists face similar day-to-day tasks where they become complacent in what they know, the protocols they follow, and the establishment they operate.
Furthermore, we focus a majority of our time on AGvocating to the consumer but lose sight of the education we provide for industry professionals and producers.
This new media tackles the most difficult crowd of agriculturalists in a way designed to be a discussion to help improve and innovate our day-to-day operations.
When we lack content heavy conversations pushing our learning capacity, we have to actively seek out these educational outlets. Additionally, it requires humility as an agriculturalist to acknowledge we don’t know everything(even though we spend every day of our life in this industry) and find ways to further our thinking.
If We Expected the Consumer to be Educated, We Need to Hold Ourselves
to the Same Standard
Several years ago, I had the chance to be in a room during a question & forum style conversation about the dairy industry. This is how it started:
“I heard that Organic milk has pus in it.”
My head INSTANTLY turned to a fellow dairy leader aside me as I struggled to control the facial expression that left my mouth saying everything I wanted to, without uttering a word. With a small two percent of the population engaged in agriculture, I thought that this percentage would encompass the most educated, profound, and knowledgeable of us all…which it does…but that doesn’t mean we don’t have room for growth.
As we focus on our target audience, the ever-famous topic of the consumer, we sometimes get so carried away in their education, we miss out on us. The involved ones.
With modern technology rapidly growing the abundance of resources to answer those tough questions has came afloat. Finding ways to educate ourselves in high caliber platforms can often be challenging, but utilizing podcasts on our drives, workout sessions, and basic tasks can be extremely awarding.
From farming in space to Templin Grandin and from hydroponics to ruminant revolution, this podcast offers every soul interested an agriculture be brought into a story.
The "Future of Agriculture" podcast provides a place where innovative ideas meet practical realities in food production.
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