2019 Ag Breakfast


Prior to the official beginning of the day, Mike Maske presented Alejandro with copies of two books by local authors including the late Paul Beaver.  Maske gave Alejandro a copy of the History of Logan County and the History of Lincoln.  Pictured left to right: Logan County Farm Bureau Director Jim Drew, Alejandro and Maske.  Maske was a part of the planning committee for the breakfast and the one who made initial contact with Alejandro to bring him to Lincoln.

 

Texas FFA Executive Director Aaron Alejandro challenges ag community to speak up

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[March 23, 2019]  The 20th Annual Logan County Ag Breakfast was held Thursday, March 21 at Lincoln College’s Jack Nutt Arena with a large group in attendance. The breakfast focusing on scholarships was started by the Ag Committee of the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce and takes place during National Agriculture Week. Last year, the Logan County Farm Bureau began hosting it.

Logan County Farm Bureau President David Opperman welcomed everyone and opened with a prayer thanking God for the meal, the new life of crops or livestock, and for opportunities given to us. He asked God to be with families in Nebraska experiencing severe flooding and give them strength to get past this challenge.

On a recent drive through Colorado, Opperman said he looked around and realized people in Illinois live on some of the best farmland.

Opperman thanked everyone for coming and Lincoln College for providing the space and the dining services for the breakfast. He also thanked Jim Drew of Samantha Nagraki of the Logan County Farm Bureau for putting much of the program together, Abby Coers for setting up the PowerPoint, and ALMH for being the main sponsor in addition to many others who made the breakfast possible.



Opperman recognized state representatives, county board members and award-winning farmers Bill Sahs and Derek Martin. Sahs was recently chosen as Prairie Farm National Farm Award winner, one of four master farmers in the state, and Martin was chosen as National Outstanding Young Farmer.

Lincoln College President David Gerlach briefly spoke about the school being in a fantastic transition as it gets back to its four-year roots. Lincoln College is now offering ten different bachelor’s degrees and hopes to soon offer a Bachelor of Law, Master of Business Administration and Master of Organizational Leadership. The school plays a role as a county economic developer and has a $43 million annual economic impact in the county.

This year’s keynote speaker was Texas FFA Executive Director Aaron Alejandro. Alejandro helps businesses, organizations, education and youth clubs improve organizational skills. He also has many years of experience in management, personal and professional training.

Alejandro thanked Mike Maske for inviting him to be there.



Alejandro has been a member of the Texas Farm Bureau since 1988 and said he loves agriculture and young people. His primary message to the Logan County farm community on Thursday was to compete for the future, and he shared ideas for getting there.

He said if you are average, agriculture is not for you because agriculture needs extraordinary people to meet extraordinary challenges that are everywhere in agriculture.

One quote Alejandro said he always shares is that the philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government the next. The philosophy in schoolroom is the way we will govern it in the next, and Alejandro asked if we like where we are at right now.

Hurricanes, tornadoes and floods make headlines, but Alejandro said, you never hear the media talking about termites, which destroy more homes than any of those others and they do it little bite by little bite. He believes success works the same way as we compete for the future.

Kids can learn just as much at a grocery store as a museum. Alejandro said you just have the right person to show them around. Some people watch things happen, some people make things happen and other people wonder what the heck happened; but Alejandro said we have got to get in the game and compete for attention.

Alejandro told stories about his childhood. When he was growing up in Dallas, Texas, his dad moved out and down the street when he was six, and then died when Alejandro was 10 years old. It was the 70s and Alejandro grew his hair long and began getting into a lot of trouble. Alejandro’s mom sent him to a boys’ ranch in Amarillo, Texas in 1980, where he had to take a vocational program.

Skills USA, where they built houses and worked on cars, was what Alejandro chose; but his dorm dad Mr. Chandler placed him in Future Farmers of America instead. Alejandro was mad at God for two years and had a serious pity party.

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Alejandro went to a leadership workshop at 16 years old and an FFA state officer asked Alejandro what he would do with his life when he graduated in a couple of years.

Graduating in 1984, Alejandro said he scored 14 on the ACT and when he told his mom he wanted to go to college, she wrote him a check for $25.

Alejandro was told his future was up to him and not tied to a test score or his parents’ income. The FFA jacket helped Alejandro get to his future because when the jacket was zipped up, he looked like everyone else and no one knew all he had gone through.

Alejandro had the same opportunities as anyone else and decided to do something with that. He was elected president of FFA for the whole Texas Panhandle. When he was selected, Bill Bennett, Dean of Texas Tech University, told Alejandro, “If you come to Texas Tech, I will give you a chance.”

One scholarship soon turned into five scholarships and Alejandro’s education was paid for.

Opportunity was another area Alejandro said is important. He remembers his mom crying out and praying for food and asking God to give her son an opportunity. When Alejandro was later working at a Mexican orphanage and asked their need, a nun said she prayed the kids would have opportunities.

Alejandro said this breakfast was giving kids a chance and thanked sponsors, parents, and stakeholders who are making this country better by giving a young person with a “want to” some opportunities. His Texas FFA gives out 2.3 M in academic scholarships.

Alejandro asked, what makes “ag folks” unique? And he answered: the respect, responsibility and resiliency taught in FFA is what this country needs to get back on track.

He remembers having to go out to water horses during a blizzard that he did not want to be out in, but was reminded the horses get thirsty just like people do. Alejandro said in agriculture, if people do not do their job, something dies. Soon an economy may die, then people may die.



When talking about why to compete, Alejandro said that 50 percent of the world’s population is under the age of 30, and we live in an age where celebrities like Justin Bieber, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga have more Twitter followers than the population of five countries. If they come out and say we are going to have meatless Mondays, dairy is not good for you, or make other remarks about food and people are following them, but you are not part of the dialogue, you are losing the debate.

We have got to get into the game and become part of the dialogue or accept what someone else says. Alejandro said in 31 years, the world will need 80 percent more food than it does today, so there are tremendous opportunities ahead.

Early adopters use technology from a young age, and many get news from social media. Social media is the number one source of food information and Alejandro said 60 percent of adults log in to Facebook every day. In “user generated content,” where people follow each other on social media and someone “likes, shares, comments” on something posted, it is like a virtual high five. Alejandro said posting on social media is good as it is a social platform that allows people to be part of the dialogue and engage 70 percent of an audience that does not understand agriculture.

One thing Alejandro said we need to do is to “jump into” the food and agriculture dialogue.

Alejandro told the story of Eric “the Eel” Moussambani, who represented Equatorial Guinea in the Olympics after learning to swim in a lake and small hotel pool. Moussambani saw an Olympic sized pool for the first time at the 2000 Olympics and just stood there when the starting gun went off for the 100 Meter freestyle, so the crowd yelled at him to jump in. The others in his heat were disqualified for false starts and Moussambani was the only one left. Moussambani won his heat even though he flailed around and dog paddled. He has an Olympic record for the slowest 100 M freestyle just because he jumped in.



Alejandro said we need adults to jump into the dialogue and young people to compete for their futures. To know what the future is, we need to grow it. Empowering kids by giving them scholarships can make them mentors, teachers, sponsors, or college professors because of the opportunities they were given.

At a boot camp, Alejandro talked to a gang member who was in tears. The gang member said he would give anything just to hear someone was proud of him.

Alejandro finished by telling the kids in FFA, “We are proud of you,” and “Go out and tackle your future.”


[Angela Reiners with photos by Nila Smith]

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