Empowering Virginia's Young Farmers

This year as Virginia Farm Bureau Ambassador I have had the opportunity to travel throughout the state and interact with their members.  Farm Bureau members can be involved in what is known as Women’s Committee and Young Farmers.  Women’s Committees are open to any female Farm Bureau member and Young Farmer’s is specified any individual between the ages of 18 and 35.  Although I have not been to every single county Farm Bureau or every type of event in which both of the groups have, it is evident that there is at least one pattern amongst the two groups.

Carroll County Farm Bureau Women's Committee members

The pattern that I have noticed that distinguishes the two groups is their involvement and activeness as members.   This statement is in no way meant to offend or lessen any Young Farmer group or the organization as a whole.  But it appears that most events and outreach programs provided by Farm Bureau are organized by the Women’s Committees.  From my observation I feel that this is caused mostly by time availability.  Many of the Women’s Committee members are older, retired ladies whereas the Young Farmer members are newer to the work force and often are beginning their own families.

Steve and Jordan Berryman 2011 Young Farmers of the Year

So what can Virginia Farm Bureau do to better empower the Young Farmer members to increase their impact in their communities with the limited time they have?  In Bradshaw and Rudd’s study: A Leadership Development Needs Assessment for Virginia Farm Bureau Young Farmers, it concluded that there needs to more opportunity for younger members to build the leadership skills important to them.  This opportunity will need to come from the top down.  I feel in order to overcome this barrier the executives of Virginia Farm Bureau need to better implement the Upside-Down Pyramid Approach to Leadership.  Furthermore another leadership aspect that The Art of Leadership mentions, which I feel has great relevance to this issue is the quality movement.  Because Young Farmers are often busy, yet very community based, I see that more emphasis from the Farm Bureau as a whole on this movement will result in more active Young Farmer members.