Oklahoma Future Farmers Join Peers Nationwide At FFA State Officer Summit In DC

Future Farmers of America officers from Oklahoma and their counterparts from all over the country are in the nation’s capital this week for FFA's annual State Officer Summit. 

The event includes five days of training in agriculture advocacy and leadership.

The stifling heat that has now reached Washington certainly isn’t ideal for the FFA’s trademark blue corduroy jackets, but America’s farmers are tough, and so are its future farmers.

"There's no reason any one of you could not serve in the United States Senate," an enthusiastic Senator James Lankford said Wednesday to a large group of students sitting on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Included in that group were Oklahoma's FFA officers: eight young men and women representing every corner of the state.

"I live in Silo, which is right out of Durant." Southeast Area VP Kayla Poling told Sen. Lankford when he met with the officers afterward,

"Yeah, I actually, scarily enough, know where that is." Lankford replied, generating some laughs.

Lankford said seeing their interest in engaging with the government is encouraging to him.

"They’re coming in to be able to talk about the Farm Bill that’s coming up, the FFA and the future of that," Lankford (R-OK) said. "It’s like the United States Constitution right in front of your eyes, to say, people want to petition the government to do things, this is how it’s still done."

The goal of the summit is to help make the officers, from Oklahoma and across the country, more effective advocates for agriculture and for the FFA itself.

"We have general sessions together, then we break out into small groups and discuss different matters," State President Caleb Horne, who lives in Stillwater, said "and we just grow as leaders. It’s a great opportunity."

For some, the opportunity may quicken their step toward a career in agriculture, while others may be on a different path.

Pedro Valles, the State Secretary, wants to go into medicine, but he certainly took note of the fact that one of the members of the state congressional delegation, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK2), was himself an FFA state officer -- president -- exactly 25 years ago.  

"I think it’s really cool to come here to Washington, D.C. and see somebody who was just in our shoes," Valles said, "and he mentioned he never really thought he would be in politics."

Congressman Brecheen credits his participation in FFA, specifically as an officer, with giving him the leadership skills that ultimately put him on the path to becoming a United States Representative.