Agriculture – My Past and My Future

Jesus Rodriguez is being honored as a Future of American Agriculture Champion of Change.

Being from a migrant worker family has developed me into the person that I am and influenced the attitude that I have towards receiving a higher education.

My parents are both employed in the tree fruit industry. My dad is a tree fruit harvester and my mom is an apple sorter. My dad has been harvesting all types of tree fruit for 32 years now. My mom has been sorting apples for seven years at the packing shed. Despite their long days and hard work, my parents still have enough energy to work extra hours and perform more tasks. After a long day of harvesting cherries, my dad would wait until it got cool enough to be able to thin apples. He would then thin until it got too dark to work. In addition, he is a mechanic for anyone with car troubles and a gardener for my mom.  When it comes to my mom, she is a strong woman that I admire and love so much. She could work overtime and still have enough energy to cook an elaborate dinner and clean anything that is untidy. 

I once asked my parents why they worked as much as they do and they told me that they would like to give me what their parents were unable to give them. Without hesitation I can proudly say that I have been blessed with parents that love me unconditionally, provide for me, and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the future of their kids. Therefore, I believe it is my duty to take care of my parents after the hardships, obstacles, and sacrifices they have faced and overcome for my siblings and me.

I developed a strong work ethic working in the orchard beside my father pushing myself to do as good a job and to work as fast as he does.  I took that work ethic to the classroom and achieved good marks and earned college credit.  I was fortunate enough to be awarded enough scholarship dollars to get just over halfway through my college education, and I feel confident that I can earn the rest.  I plan to make agriculture my career based on my past experiences in the field, my Future Farmers of America (FFA) and agriculture education experience, and the fact that in my working life we will have to produce as much food as we have in all of history to feed an ever increasing world population.

My path to success and financial stability lies on the road through an orchard, which I hopefully will someday own. Then, the only apples my dad will have to pick are the apples that he wants to eat. 

Jesus Rodriguez was born in Los Angeles, California the son of Mexican and El Salvadoran immigrants.  His family moved to the Chelan Valley in Central Washington State before he entered school to work in the tree fruit industry. He will enter college this coming fall pursuing a degree in Horticulture at Washington State University.

Land and Opportunity – A Life in Agriculture

Fabiola Nizigiyimana is being honored as a Future of American Agriculture Champion of Change.

I was born in Rwanda and raised in Burundi, where the majority of people are subsistence farmers who sell their crops for domestic consumption. Farming has always been a vital part of my life, as I was a farmer in Burundi before I came to the United States in 2007 as a refugee. I am extremely grateful to the U.S. government for providing me with the opportunity to come here, and since my arrival in the U.S. I have been given many more opportunities. In 2010, I began farming at the Flats Mentor Farm (FMF) in Lancaster, Mass., which is a program of World Farmers that gives free land the first year to immigrant and refugee farmers who want to continue farming. I started out with a single plot of land, but I now farm two acres.

Another opportunity came my way in 2012, when I applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Environmental Quality Incentives Program as a new farmer, under the guidance of Maria Moreira from the Flats Mentor Farm, and was successful in acquiring a high tunnel. I am thankful to the Department of Agriculture for providing me with this opportunity, as the high tunnel has benefited me in countless ways. My high tunnel allows me to start growing my produce earlier in the season so I can go to the marketplace two to three weeks before everyone else, and allows me to continue growing my crops after the season ends. In 2013, I was able to sell my crops wholesale through our Immigrant Farmer Marketing Cooperative thanks to my high tunnel. Along with the additional income it provides, it also gives food security to me and my five children. Here, as in Burundi, I farm to help both my family and my community.

In addition to being the first African woman refugee farmer at FMF to own a high tunnel, I am also a founding member of the Immigrant Farmer Marketing Cooperative. This cooperative helps the farmers at FMF to sell their crops for a profit while also bringing the community closer together. I personally help the community in other ways, such as through translation. Many farmers speak little English or none at all, and because I speak five languages I am able to act as a translator if any problems arise.

I heard about the Flats Mentor Farm from members of my church in Worcester, Mass., where I have lived since arriving in the U.S. I tell my friends that through farming and its learning opportunities, they will be able to support themselves and our community in terms of food security. I currently have two other jobs to provide for my family, but farming is my favorite job.

Although it is my favorite job, farming is not easy and many hardships can and do arise. However, I love farming and the opportunities it provides are invaluable. I am very happy and honored to have been selected as a Future of American Agriculture Champion of Change, and I hope that this nomination will show farmers both at FMF and around this country that their hard work is irreplaceable, and also that it might inspire others to begin farming as well.

Fabiola Nizigiyimana is a leader in her community, a mentor farmer at Flats Mentor Farm in Lancaster, MA, the owner of a high tunnel from NRCS-USDA program, a founding member of the Immigrant Farmer Marketing Cooperative, and a single mother of five who speaks five languages.

Working for the Future of the Beef Community

Adam McClung is being honored as a Future of American Agriculture Champion of Change.

It is an honor to be selected as a Champion of Change for the Future of American Agriculture. Agriculture has always been a part of my life and has impacted me down to my very core.  It is inspiring to know that we live in a country that still values agriculture and the people engaged in it at the highest levels.

My family has been actively involved in agriculture - specifically beef production - for generations.  But the farther down my own road I have traveled, the wider I have wanted my path to be. That is to say, the more involved I have wanted to become.  So, while keeping my feet firmly planted in agriculture, I started branching out to work advocating for and representing the agricultural community at the policy table and in the news. With so many people now generations removed from the farm, it is important for those of us who are farmers and ranchers to be a voice for our industry and neighbors – for the hard work, dedication, and passion we all share.  I wanted to be a voice for these salt of the earth folks that feed a world. It is now a growing, deep passion I have to make sure that beef producers and the agricultural community’s ideas, farms, ranches, education, production, and markets remain viable.

I have spent the past decade involved in and leading an organization the represents the beef community – the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association. I cannot begin to explain the satisfaction that comes from touching the lives of so many involved in agriculture. I get to do this by representing producers’ ideas and experience, working to enhance their business climate, building trust with their consumers, providing education so as to allow them to make better decisions within their operations, and making stronger leaders and building new ones.  All this work not only paves the way for safer agricultural products for a growing population, but also assures sustainability for the ever-changing agricultural community.     

I also wanted to instill this passion in young producers and their families who are getting started or becoming a part of agriculture. So within the Arkansas Cattlemen, we created a young producer program that spends the course of a year exposing new and beginning farmers and ranchers to the tools they need to be leaders - not just for our organization, but leaders for agriculture as a whole. When they finish the program we hope that they know and understand the need for agricultural leaders not only on a national level, but in their local communities as well.

Adam McClung is the Executive Vice President for the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, a non-profit organization. The Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association has been working for the cattlemen of Arkansas since 1959 and is devoted to improving the cattle industry through producer education and representation on legislative and regulatory issues.