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to connect an available workforce of National Guard and Reserve soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and other military veterans to jobs in agriculture and it has now been copied in other states. We held our annual Officers & Leaders Conference “virtually,” for the first time in its 72-year history. Hundreds of viewers heard from our board leaders and Gov. Asa Hutchinson via live video stream and hundreds more visited the official Officers & Leaders website, which hosted more than 30 hours of informative video on a variety of important topics, such as feral hogs, H-2A employment and ballot initiatives. We continued our tradition of recognizing the top Young Farmers & Ranchers in the state, thanks to video submissions and a livestreamed awards announcement. Now, these talented and hard-working young men and women will represent Arkansas at the national level, even if the American Farm Bureau must hold its January convention virtually as well. The Arkansas Farm Bureau board of directors approved a commitment of $300,000 to Arkansas 4-H and FFA over the next five years to support the development of new facilities and the growth of the programs. We continued our effort to build up and prepare young farmers, ranchers and those involved in agriculture for leadership roles in the industry through our President’s Leadership Council, our premier training program. This was the fifth class of the President’s Leadership Council, and 18 participants took part in three Friday-Saturday sessions throughout the year. The class continued in spite of COVID-19, with the final two sessions being held virtually. We have also maintained our focus on
Arkansas Agriculture
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ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU • FALL 2020
agriculture education and outreach to schoolage children through Ag in the Classroom. During the pandemic, we’ve provided materials to teachers throughout Arkansas to use in online teaching and we once again named an Ag in the Classroom Outstanding Teacher. We also invested in more advanced technology for education, unveiling the new Ag Tech Training Lab – a state-of-the-art mobile teaching tool – to take to schools around the state. • Membership held steady, even growing in recent months as we continued our work to identify new, exciting and useful benefits for our members and to highlight the many ways our low annual membership fee supports important education efforts, community outreach and farmers and ranchers throughout the state. • We continued our grassroots policy development process despite the pandemic necessitating a shift of many meetings to virtual and the downsizing of other county activities. We successfully held our annual State Resolutions meeting, with social distancing and a limited crowd and now we are set to finalize our policy through our firstever virtual business meeting in lieu of our annual convention. As we prepare to enter a new year, new challenges lie ahead and COVID remains an issue across the country, but we have no intention of slowing down. We’ve learned valuable lessons in 2020 and we know we can continue to make a difference, no matter what the circumstances. At the risk of falling into that “Groundhog Day” trap, I’m going to close with a line from a previous column, because I believe it sums up where we stand no matter what year it is or what challenges we face: Food, fiber and shelter remain necessary, and Arkansas Farm Bureau remains committed to those who provide it. * 3
