Dealer Index located on Page A10
December 2022
Volume 40
48 Pages
P.O. Box 306, Colfax, WA 99111
Phone: (509) 397-2191
Number 9
MR. COOL
FFA adviser Rod Cool says agriculture more important than ever
Q
By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Quincy High School agriculture teacher Rod Cool. The school’s agriculture program includes a livestock facility, a greenhouse, a food science kitchen and a 12-acre alfalfa field used as a teaching lab. The school will build a cattle barn next summer.
UINCY, Wash. — Agriculture education and FFA are more important than ever, and Rod Cool ought to know. He has taught high school agriculture for more than three decades in Washington state. It’s a matter of feeding the nation and the world, he said. “Our farm population cannot sustain itself,” said Cool, 58, who teaches agriculture and advises the FFA chapter at the Quincy, Wash., high school. “It’s statistically impossible for that few people to keep producing enough people to do all the jobs and keep producing food.” With a rapidly increasing global population — nearly 8 billion and counting — and the hungry mouths that come with it, agriculture teachers like Cool and his colleagues are vital. “For every 100 graduates that we turn out of any high school, we better make two farmers or we’re all going to starve to death,” Cool said from behind his trademark mustache. “We have to not only attract kids to the industry, we need to find the best and brightest kids and get them there. Truly, we are the last line of defense between us and starvation.”
His spot in life
This is Cool’s 36th year in a Washington classroom. He taught 3 years at Selkirk High School in Metaline Falls, 3 years at Zillah High School, 9 years in Wenatchee, 15 years in Chelan, and he’s been at Quincy High School for 6 years. See Cool, Page A9
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