Advocate For Agvocates

Spring quarter has started at The Ohio State University and at our respected branch campuses such as ATI. I have courses in biology, farm finance, small business management & my highly anticipated independent study on advocating for our industry of agriculture.

I am extremely excited to learn how some of the best advocates communicate with the public and to build my skills as an agvocate. My "syllabus" outline has me working towards becoming a better public speaker & learning how to put together an event with some speakers coming to OSU ATI to talk about agvocating. I will be increasing my use of facebook, twitter and my blog as I proceed through this process. I will also be completing a program that helps me build character and understanding of how to be a positive impact on our industry. Some of the choices I have is to take the Master of Beef Advocacy & get my "MBA" which I think would be a great program! I will also be looking at Operation Mainstreet with the Pork Producers, Agripower with OFBF and some other things.

While on vacation last week I had PLENTY of time to think about my study of agvocating while I drove and I think that one thing that kept standing out in my mind was that agvocates are pillars to our industry and especially in Ohio we need strong pillars in our industry. I think that this independent study will help me to build myself as a pillar with strong roots in Ohio agriculture. I hope that I can be a positive agvocate in my community and at OSU. I want to become an advocate for agvocates. By that I mean I want my advocating to be channeled in a way that I can recruit new advocates my age with similar interests here at my school. My professor Dr. Carrie Pickworth has given me an excellent chance to do this and to succeed and I hope that with some help from my friends in the industry I can stay on track to become that advocate.

So stay tuned to my blog for the important updates over the next ten weeks for this process.

I'm Back!

Boy it's been a while since I blogged! I've been so busy with school work I haven't had time to sit and write a good blog about my experiences in advocating.  Even though I haven't been on the blog, I have been agvocating my heart out. While busy with school, I have worked on my goal for 2011 and I will be taking my independent study course spring quarter at Ohio State ATI. I will be studying agvocating and using many tools, events, speakers and my own knowledge to spread the word of safe food and caring producers in Ohio.

I f you read my blog regularly and enjoy it, you can expect weekly updates and entries as well as a lot of twittter feeds and facebook updates. I will be working with a fellow student, Amanda Wagner and my professor Dr. Carrie Pickworth to create a few events here at ATI that we can have guest speakers come and talk about their agvocating experiences and give us some guides and recommendations.

I'm extremely excited to see what I can learn about agvocating through this study. I hope that it is as successful as I expect and I hope that there is interest in learning about more from others in Ohio.

While this quarter of school winds down next week, I see signs of spring on the way in Wayne County. I am extremely excited for spring. I love being on the tractors, in the fields, or just being outdoors. The cold has put a holt on my outdoor experiences this winter, boy has it been a wild winter!

I'll be headed to Vero Beach, Florida in a little over two weeks and I am excited to see what Florida agriculture looks like. I haven't been to Florida since I was a little boy and I hope that I can learn a little about Florida agriculture and use my spring break trip as a way to agvocate to others.

So, Stay tuned for a lot more reflections from this County Boy!