By: Guest Columnist Cheyenne Bastian-Brown, Bradford County FFA President
What do you think of when you hear FFA?  When confronted with the concept of what FFA (formally known as the National Future Farmers of America Organization) is, many people focus primarily on the word farmer and look no further for any other explanation. Since the title includes the phrase “Future Farmer,” it is then believed that each member of the organization is in pursuance of one day becoming a farmer, a landowner, and someone to feed the world population… nothing else. Typically, this is the idea that most parent/guardians have in mind when their student pursues an interest in agricultural education.

By: Miranda Neville, Agricultural Resource Specialist, BCCD

     Last week I wrote about how farmers and the industry are growing and evolving exponentially. This week, I’d like to focus on how gender roles have also changed and evolved in the agriculture world. 
     Historically agriculture has been a male dominated industry. Still true today, but the number of women with hands-on involvement or decision-making power on farms is rapidly increasing. Women are also serving an ever-increasing role in the agriculture industry in other ways such as agriculture educators, animal nutritionist, A.I. breeders, veterinarians, CONSERVATION DISTRICT employees, milk testers, and quality assurance inspectors, to name a few.