Illinois Farm Bureau Young Leaders Conference

Did you know that I have speaking gigs? You wouldn’t know because I haven’t shared much about them on the blog, but I speak frequently about things that I love. Over the years I’ve been on various panels that ranged from the love of blogging, to Box Tops for Education, to being a Field Mom with the Illinois Farm Bureau three years ago. With that experience, others have come, and I’m pretty excited to say that I’ve been on three different speaking engagements through the Illinois Farm Bureau, and I continue to be asked to do more. 

This particular photo is from the Young Leaders Conference that took place in East Peoria, Illinois last weekend. It was a chance for younger farmers (younger being 18-35) to listen to me speak about my experience as an Illinois Field Mom and ask questions about what I gained from the experience.  Being in front of roughly 525 people to share my love of all things social media colliding with learning about their careers was wonderful. 

One of the most frequent questions was how would I suggest farmers become more transparent with the regular consumer. You know, regular being you and me. It’s true. We don’t really know farmers like we want to, and they are realizing that. The younger farmers really want to share their day to day happenings with us and provide a platform in which to answer questions that we may have. We both acknowledged that it wouldn’t turn things around overnight, and that there will always be naysayers, but it was a start. 

Want to see planting practices or ask questions about harvesting or WHY a farmer chooses to use GMO seeds instead of organic, find someone online, or Periscope, or Instagram and ask questions. Don’t be mean, and have some hard discussions. It may not change you from an organic supporter to a GMO one, but maybe it will establish of level of respect when its realized that we’re all after the same thing. 

A couple of months ago, I spoke at another food conference about the diva ways of eggs. THAT didn’t please one particular person in the audience, and I’m sure that I’ll be posting that gem this month sometime, so stay tuned. 

Until then, keep asking questions.