AgriFuture Conference a Success!

I had the opportunity to attend the AgriFuture conference held in Laramie, WY along with two other USU COA Ambassadors- Cody Swainston and Jacob Miller. We were able to go thanks to the scholarships provided to us by Mr. Blackham, the Utah Commissioner of Agriculture and Food.   This was the second annual AgriFuture conference, which was put on by the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Wyoming Rural Development Council and other partnering agencies. 

The purpose of the conference was to bring people together in order to allow for discussion and education about the issues facing agriculture as well as to brainstorm ideas to help agriculture in the future.  The conference also provided a great way for producers, leaders, students and professionals, to come together and network.  The activities included speakers, break-out sessions, and discussion groups. 

The keynote speaker this year was Dr. Lowell Catlett, a noted economic futurist from New Mexico State University, who talked about the coming golden age of agriculture.  Listening to Dr. Catlett was an inspiring way to kick-off the conference.  Soon afterwards, we split up into breakout sessions which included: I graduated with an Ag degree, now what?, Local/Global: Feeding the neighbors and the world, Energy in Agriculture-Back to the Future, and The Media and Agriculture: Wait, that’s not what I said!  By choosing two of these smaller classes to attend we got the opportunity to focus our attention on issues more relevant to us individually.  The second day was mainly focused on discussion and problem solving.  We again broke into small groups with a goal to discuss and pinpoint the future problems in agriculture and come up with solutions to those problems.  At the end of the conference each group presented their ideas in front of the rest of the conference.  As a whole, we decided we need to work on is increased advocacy or agricultural advocacy.  Personally, I know I will be trying harder to do my part on this end of things.

Besides attending the conference we also had the opportunity to do and see other things in Laramie.  In particular, we had the opportunity to tour the University of Wyoming campus after meeting some of the UW College of Agriculture Ambassadors at the conference.  With their direction, we also got to visit the animal facilities for UW.  It was interesting to compare their campus and facilities to the ones we have at USU. 

In my opinion, the whole experience was a great success!  It is the responsibility of each of us involved in agriculture to learn about current issues as well as to be prepared for future issues that we will face.  Going to this conference was a great way for me to get involved in both of those things. 

-- Karmella Dolecheck, Ag Ambassador  

                                  Cody and I presenting on our discussion group’s results

The Utah State University representatives at the 2011 AgriFuture Conference: Jacob Miller, Karmella Dolecheck, and Cody Swainston