Farm Kids Advocating for the Industry That Raised Them

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made,” legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi once said. “And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.”

It’s no coincidence that farm kids often make good leaders. They witness leadership skills demonstrated daily on the farm.

Not long ago, two of my children had the opportunity to lead a ‘From Farm to Food to You’ dairy lesson at my youngest son’s junior high school for the Eighth Grade Language Arts class. The class curriculum has been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma which paints a somewhat false and very opinionated story of how food is produced. 

I asked Jacob if he was okay with me coming in and teaching this lesson to his class, and he confidently said that he thought he could teach it himself. His older sister, Cassie, asked if she could help teach it, too, since she didn’t get to do this workshop when she was in Junior High, as it was the year of COVID.

Knowing just how impressionable middle school students are, I grabbed my Rolodex and connected with Domino's to partner with me on telling my dairy good story. I wanted to tie together the amazing care that goes into producing the food they eat, and when it comes to teenagers, you speak to them with pizza. I couldn't think of a better partner than Domino's because of their awesome partnership with dairy farmers.

I watched Cassie and Jacob spend the day talking about cow comfort, land care and telling the students how no antibiotics are in the meat and milk they consume. This wasn’t something my kids really had to prepare for. It was a natural conversation about something very close to their hearts. They even did a Q&A session and asked trivia questions, and all the students were very engaged. 

I often think we dairy farmers talk so much about being advocates that we sometimes we forget to ask if our children would like to be advocates for an industry that has helped raise them and one that they have grown to love, too.

At the beginning of each class, the students watched a 3-minute slideshow of photos of our family and farm, while playing Luke Bryan’s hit song, “Hear’s to the Farmer.” The kids all were smiling, but then I looked at Jacob, whose smile was stretched wide. He was so proud for his classmates to see where he was from. He was proud to be the Farmer’s son. You know what I’m proud of? My kid’s ability to stand up and teach a lesson with passion and knowledge. 

I would encourage more of you to look to the natural-born leaders who you have helped raise to help tell our dairy good story and be industry advocates.