From Mr. Coon’s Desk: The 2021 FFA Fair and the Future of Agriculture

Every year Redwood’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) club raises lambs to show, then sell at the Tulare County Fair.

This year is different from previous years. After COVID-19 put a hold on the club’s activities, they had to figure out how to get back into the groove.

COVID-19 caused a change in almost all activities and daily life in general. We wear masks to stop the spread and we are more careful about how we go about our daily lives.

The change to how certain clubs, sports, and even academics are run has set everyone back.

FFA, like every other club, had to face some changes to the activities they are used to doing.

Mr. Coon is both the FFA advisor and Redwood’s one and only Agriculture teacher. He helps the students throughout the entire process of raising then selling their animals.

He says, “I would say the biggest change is that we saw a decrease in numbers right now. I think having a year off in between due to COVID, we lost a little momentum.”

Along with the decrease in numbers, there weren’t as many members participating as usual. Coon had to decide how he would make up for the loss.

“One of the things we focused on this year is that we weren’t going to have a lot of kids involved, the kids that we did have involved, we were going to go for some string quality,” Coon explains.

This year, there was a total of nine people participating in the fair. The small number of students put a strain on the event, but their dedication made up for it.

That dedication paid off and the students were very successful in raising their animals for the fair.

“I think we saw that the kids that got involved were totally dedicated, they have tons of quality, they wanted to do that, and I think that’s going to inspire more kids to want to do this with us,” Coon says.

Thankfully, Coon can tell us, “FFA is an inter-curricular club, meaning that you have to be in an AG [agriculture] class to be a part of the club, it’s not extracurricular.”

As they work through the first year, they talk about the ways they can get involved, such as the fair. It helps students get a peek into what the industry is like.

Coon says, “For the fair, raising livestock, that’s probably the number one way to get involved.”

As the FFA advisor, Coon has the job of seeing who has the dedication, time commitment, and sets their priorities in the right way.

Raising an animal is a huge time commitment. In the words of Coon, “it’s the equivalent of being a varsity athlete.”

His job is to teach these students about the Agriculture industry. The fair is a huge part of this curriculum and helps students understand why they do what they do.

The students learn a lot from this experience. They are introduced to the Agriculture industry and learn to take on certain responsibilities.

Coon says, “The student buys the animal and owns it, they are fully invested. They feed it every day, twice a day. They work with it every day.”

He continues, “It’s teaching them work ethic. It’s teaching them basic finances and budgeting. It’s teaching them animal husbandry, they have to take care of it. We’ve got to know if it’s sick or if it’s healthy. It’s teaching them animal nutrition with how we’re feeding it and their growth and gain.”

Coon is very passionate about giving his students quality Agriculture education. His focus isn’t on the prizes, it’s on the students.

He says, “We don’t do it [raising the animals] just to win blue ribbons at the fair, we do it to get the students experience in what the AG industry looks like.”

The students are getting just a drop of what the industry has to offer.

Coon’s Agriculture class, FFA, and participating in the fair prepares them for moving on to greater things and contributing to the future of the AG industry.

Coon says, “These are all things that anybody in large-scale production Agriculture, or even medium-scale, they are thinking about all of this stuff daily.”

He continues, “It’s almost like a micro-look at the industry at large. What they are doing on a one animal basis versus a hundred animals.”

As the only Agriculture teacher at Redwood, Coon has many responsibilities.

He says, “I’m honored because I love Redwood, I love being an AG teacher, but at the same time I think Redwood in the years moving ahead, needs to grow.”

Redwood is the largest high school in the district with the smallest AG program.

Coon says, “That’s no fault of Redwood’s, everybody else’s AG department has grown around town because something else has closed.”

According to Coon, offering the right classes, telling people about the classes, making the classes interesting, and finding the right person to take on a second AG teacher position is essential to a successful AG department.

“We need to get a second AG person in over here so that we have the AG mechanics side, and the animal science/plant science side. We’re going to serve more kids that way,” he adds.

It’s very important to Coon that any addition to the Agriculture department is of the best quality and will bring amazing things to the program.

Coon wants that position filled by “a person that’s about teaching kids, that’s very knowledgeable, is friendly, that draws people in because that’s kind of what we do here at Redwood High School.”

The world is constantly changing, and Agriculture is changing with it. Agriculture students will be a part of that change.

As somebody in the AG industry, Coon sees everything that’s happening. The coming change is a big milestone in the industry’s history.

“Agriculture is in a pivot moment in history right now. We are pivoting from being all about production to considering production but at the same time, we’re seeing so many companies out there becoming so environmentally conscious about how they do it,” Coon says.

According to Coon, regenerative Agriculture is becoming big in the industry. Coon says, “We want to be able to grow our food and such and do it in a way that regenerates the soil, regenerates our plant life.”

This change in the industry will have a huge, positive impact on the environment, and Coon is very excited about it.

He says, “It’s probably the most exciting time in my life to be a part of Agriculture because we’re going to continue the production and we’re going to do it cleaner.”

In today’s climate, environmentally-friendly Agriculture, and production in general is essential.

Regenerative Agriculture is how the AG industry will adapt to this, and high school students in programs such as FFA will be leading that change.

Coon says, “We have to prepare them [the students] for that change coming, and we have to make them aware of that because they are going to be that change. They’re going to be the ones in those jobs and careers that are watching that change happen.”

He continues, “We can actually be part of the solution to draw down carbon in the atmosphere, we can be the biggest carbon-sequestering process on the planet if we do these things right.”

Agriculture is evolving every day. The path to change is long, but students are excited to be a part of it and to make an impact.

Coon adds, “They’re excited for that opportunity to be a part of a solution where you can go into a grocery store and you can know you are getting wholesome, healthy, properly raised food, and the way people are raising it is benefiting the environment.”

This change is extremely important. Coon says, “We have to feed the globe. We have to feed the world.”

Everybody benefits from these changes, as Coon says, it’s a “win-win-win-win.” People want to be a part of this future, of this change, and it will benefit everyone in the long run.

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