Kathy Egan
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Each year, young people in our community are involved in the Farm Bureau meeting in a variety of ways, one of which is contests. For the littlest ones, there is a coloring contest; young people in fifth grade show off their skills by writing essays; high school students work hard on writing the best speech in hopes of being the contest winner and being able to present the speech at the banquet.
This year's winning speech was written and presented by Alesshia James, a student at Jefferson County K-12 Community Partnership School (JS). She concluded her ideas to a roar of applause from all in the room. As a Future Farmers of America (FFA) member, she also shared in the serving duties during supper. James is an agriculture student at JCS, and her passion for food producers was evident in both her thoughtful ideas and her vivid presentation of those ideas.
The speech focused on economic viability, the challenges faced by Florida's agricultural communities plus the importance of the agricultural industry to our state and country.
“Florida has a rich agriculture that affects our economy in multiple ways... Florida's agricultural industries provide over $120 billion in economic revenue to the state, second only to tourism, and support[s] more than two million jobs.”
Some of the challenges farmers face was also presented as a concern to James through her speech. She discussed the importance of economic viability, “the profit (or return) can reasonably be expected to be high enough to justify the investment,” said James.
Newcomers to the farm life as well as those who come from a long line of those who provide food to the rest of us are likely familiar with the need to earn a sufficient return. They are also most likely very aware of the challenges faced when working toward that goal. Some specific concerns James presented were adaptations needed when dealing with climate change, losing land to housing and industrial development and, of course, having sufficient rainfall and sunshine.
With thoughtful research presented clearly, it is no surprise that this year's speech contest winner was Alesshia James, and it was also no surprise that her speech was met with thunderous applause from the meeting attendees.