FFA program remains strong at NWR7

WINSTED — Northwestern Regional High School’s FFA is in its 32nd year and has 109 students enrolled in its programs.

The school’s FFA is part of a national youth program that was founded in 1928 as the Future Farmers of America.

According to the organization’s website at www.ffa.org, the FFA was founded by a group of young farmers in order to teach skills in agricultural studies and sciences.

As of this year, the FFA has half a million members between 12 and 21 years old, with 7,500 chapters all across the United States.

Northwestern’s FFA was originally founded in 1984, and operated out of a portable classroom.

The program now has a whole wing in the school’s building that includes several classrooms, laboratories, a greenhouse and a barn where several agricultural animals are taken care of, including a pig, goats and several cows.

Two members of Northwestern’s program are Austen Royer and Jackie Johnson, both 16 years old.

Both Austen and Jackie have been members of the Northwestern’s FFA program for the past three years.

“In late February, we had National FFA Week, which was a celebration across the country for the FFA,” Jackie said. 

“We had a lot of support from our teachers and students who are not in the FFA,” Austen said. “They were all wearing FFA shirts and buttons and decorated the school. It was very fun.”

Both Austen and Jackie said that being members of the organization have been important to them in their school careers.

“The FFA combines traditional agricultural studies with progressive education,” Austen said. “It allows us to make progress and to develop new methods of agricultural production. We learn a lot about business skills so we can do better when it comes to agriculture.”

“Agriculture is never going to go away,” Jackie said. “Right now it’s more important than ever to learn about agriculture. In 2050, scientists have estimated that the world is going to reach a population of 7 billion people. We need to find a way to feed all of those people. There are so many jobs in agriculture. The FFA is important because it teaches students at a young age how to get involved.”

“We now have FFA chapters in urban locations,” Austen said. “This way we can teach students in cities about agriculture, so we can have those skills available to them.

Austen and Jackie said that they both have learned various skills from the FFA that have helped them both in and out of school.

“We learn a lot about public speaking,” Austen said. “The program helps us to get up in front of a crowd and to deliver a speech. We research and write these speeches in a way to take a persuasive argumentative position.”

“It has given us both much more confidence in doing things,” Jackie said. “It helps you to work together with other people and to make decisions efficiently.”

Both students said that, no matter how many advances there will be in technology in the future, both agriculture and the FFA will be around.

“The FFA is always finding ways to connect new, progressive technology with older agricultural technology,” Austen said. “On one field trip we went to a dairy farm where we saw modern technology at work. They had an electronic tracker around every cow’s ankle. Each tracker would track how many steps each cow takes each day and how much milk the cow produces. The farmer logged all of the data into a computer and transferred all of the data in Excel databases. It was very cutting-edge.”

“I think the organization will be around for a long time,” Jackie added. “If you look at our greenhouse you will see that we’re still finding new ways to raise crops. We’re also trying to find ways to connect urban environments to agriculture, and finding new ways to integrate traditional agriculture to modern technology.”