“I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds.”
If you ever zipped up the blue corduroy jacket, an iconic symbol of the National FFA Organization, you probably know this first sentence of the FFA Creed, written by E.M. Tiffany. I have always believed in the future of agriculture. I have been riding in the buddy seat of my dad’s tractor since I was born. I helped run the grain cart during harvest and worked cattle with my family, I took agricultural education classes throughout high school and competed in FFA events. When I served as a state FFA officer during my freshman year of college, I discovered that it was time for me to live out the second half of that statement: not of words, but of deeds. It was time to take action.
One of my fellow state officer teammates and best friends sent me the flyer for a policy internship at NASDA, and the rest is history. I spent my summer getting to know the wonderful NASDA staff and tagging along to events on Capitol Hill. Coming from a hometown with a population of less than 300 people, living in the big city was certainly an adjustment. Once I saw the impact we can have on agriculture here, it made all the traffic worth it.
I spent my whole life talking about how I believed in the future of agriculture, but interning with NASDA allowed me to live that out. I loved having a front row seat to the NASDA policy team’s day-to-day work, from meetings with Congressional staff to reading through legislation, regulations and Supreme Court decisions. While things don’t always work out the way we want, the agricultural industry is worth fighting for. With time, patience and a lot of passion, we can make a change and leave the world a little bit better than we found it.
