The Normal FFA chapter (Normal, IL) made an impact on social media last month when they took up the 10 Gallon Challenge, purchasing ten gallons of milk to donate to a local food pantry as part of a larger effort to raise awareness of the current state of the dairy industry and to emphasize the importance of milk as part of a nutritious diet. They nominated several other FFA chapters, beginning a ripple effect that has resulted in more than…
Episode 028 – The Buddy Seat
September 26, 2018If you grew up on or near a farm, chances are you’ve had at least one ride in the buddy seat. In this episode, Claire and Gracie reminisce about their time in the buddy seat and other times they hung out with Dad around the farm. But the ultimate question is which equipment manufacturer makes the most comfortable buddy seat? Find the full text to ‘An Ode to the Buddy Seat’ here. Click the play button at the top to listen…
An Ode to the Buddy Seat
September 21, 2018An Ode to the Buddy Seat Oh, the buddy seat, A farm kid’s favorite place to be, Hanging with Dad, Wearing matching plaid, It’s much more fun than watching TV, And Mom sent a whole lunchbox of snacks to eat! You patiently waited all day For a chance to ride along with Dad (or Mom). And who doesn’t think it’s funny to watch the combine say, “Om nom nom nom nom nom”? Oh, the buddy seat, Climbing over to…
Episode 027 – School Lunches Are (Still) Terrible…
September 19, 2018In this episode of A Farm Kid’s Guide to Agriculture, Claire and Gracie interview their middle sister, Hannah Weinzierl, an ag teacher in Northern Illinois. They cover her experience as an ag teacher, what advice she has for new ag teachers, and for the latest on the state of school lunches. And listen as Claire re-hashes a story about a school lunch she got during her senior year of high school – a grudge she’s held for five whole years.…
Episode 026 – #TeamCorn
September 12, 2018We’re back with another episode of the podcast with the Corn Whisperer, also known as Rodney Weinzierl of the Illinois Corn Growers Association. This week, we discussed the ins and outs of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board (AKA, the Illinois corn checkoff) and the Illinois Corn Growers Association, covering topics such as the differences and similarities of each organization, how checkoff organizations came to be, and the strength farmers have behind united organizations such as these. Rod/Dad’s been with Illinois…
Episode 025 – Meet the Corn Whisperer
September 5, 2018If you’re gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. In this week’s episode, Claire and Gracie are joined by special guest Rodney Weinzierl (also known as “Dad”), who not only works full time for the Illinois Corn Growers Association, but is also the third generation maintaining the family farm near Stanford, Illinois. Listen as they grill him about his job, what he does, what advice he has for young folks (like us) getting ready to join the agriculture…
Episode 024 – Work Hard, Play Hard
August 29, 2018In this week’s episode, Claire and Gracie talk about work-life balance: Does it even exist? If so, what’s the code we need to crack in order to achieve the perfect balance? And while we’re on the subject of work, we took a few minutes to see how American work lifestyles compare to other countries. Key findings: The number of hours you spend at work in a week might not matter as much as the camaraderie you develop by spending downtime…
Episode 023 – We Have Issues
August 22, 2018Why is public policy important to agriculture? Who represents ag in those conversations? Are politics really as ruthless as portrayed in House of Cards? This week, we talk with Kristen Faucon, Issues Manager at GROWMARK (and fellow cat mom), about ag policy, what an issues manager actually does, and a few issues that we should expect to hear about over the next several months from those in our circles who are involved in ag policy. Click the link above to…
Episode 022 – Hashtag Sustainability
August 15, 2018“Have you heard the good news about sustainability?” In this episode, Claire and Gracie dive into the topic of sustainability and explore why it often sounds like a sales pitch or a buzzword (hashtag sustainability). Just what is a corporate social conscience and why are they responsible for saving our environment? Once upon a time, we patted ourselves on the back every time we recycled something as if we were single-handedly saving the environment, but with the pressure of society…
Episode 021 – Pick a Side
August 8, 2018Why does everything have to be one side or the other? Why not ‘this,’ ‘that,’ and ‘the other thing’? In this episode, we mull over why we are conditioned to automatically like or dislike something and discuss the importance of message delivery, which is an incredibly important thing in agriculture. Think about it this way: Which conversation would you rather join – one that is confrontational and argumentative or one that is calm and friendly? Assuming we can take this…