Airport Agvocacy
The 2010 North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) officially kicked off this past weekend. As Louisville’s streets filled up with fans cheering for the 19-0 philly Zenyata, trailers full of some of the nation’s finest dairy cattle and goats lined the roads as well. While I attended NAILE for dairy judging (and had an excellent experience evaluating top-of-the-line cattle), the most interesting part of the trip happened hundreds of miles away from Kentucky in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport.
Traveling with my team members via airplane from Oklahoma to Kentucky, we discovered while preparing to depart for the airport we were all wearing the same “Dairy Science Club” sweatshirts. It turns out this would lead to numerous opportunities to spread information about agriculture. After answering a few questions about the dairy club while aboard the first plane, we arrived at our layover in Texas to a couple more questions. While there, we met a soldier who noticed the sweatshirts and began asking questions. This opened the door for us to share information about the dairy industry and agriculture, not just dairy judging. When talking to the soldier, a dairy farmer sitting near us began to chime into the conversation as well to share her knowledge of the industry.
Amazingly, the conversation covered a variety of topics. People not directly associated with agriculture have a lot of questions, allowing us to address concerns about food, feed, fuel and fiber production. Starting with dairy judging, we were able to explain a few of the differences between beef and dairy cattle while explaining the reason why dairy cattle’s bones are more apparent (they’re not starved, they’re effectively converting the large amount of food and water the take-in to milk). This lead to a conversation about animal care and the genuine concern farmers have when working with their livestock.
When taking few minutes with strangers, we clearly weren’t changing hundreds of people’s viewpoints or impacting large groups opinions’ of the production of their food; however, we did make a small difference. Whether spreading news about agriculture to numerous people or simply sharing a fun fact with a friend not affiliated with the industry, every little bit matters. So as you go about your busy schedule, do you make time to inform the people around you of the significance of agriculture? Or do you leave that up to someone else?
~Guest Post by Laura Padgett, Oklahoma State University student
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