Miriam Hoffman and her mother, Winifred, on their La Salle County farm. Winifred Hoffman first experienced farming in college and has become a talented, respected farmer.
Agriculture’s talent pool must reach beyond farms By Miriam Hoffman
M
y mother exemplifies the ethos of the ideal American farmer: a thoughtful steward of the land, an acute decision-maker and a relentlessly hard worker. Watching her work cattle is like watching Gordon Ramsay cook a gourmet dinner or Brad Paisley play an electric guitar riff. It seems obvious she’s been doing it all her life, she’s so good at it. Except, she hasn’t. Is agriculture so different from other fields that you can’t ever understand it without being raised by a farmer? Can we afford to exclude the talent, ideas and perspectives of those not agriculturally
minded from birth and still remain a competitive modern industry? I recently saw a Twitter thread which asked a question along the lines of, “Is it possible for someone not born into agriculture to understand the industry?” As an “ag kid” myself, it’s tempting to think the answer is a resounding no. I mean, just look at all the ways agriculture is different from other industries — from being at the mercy of volatile weather, to the often generations-deep emotional attachment to land and livestock, to the fact we produce one of the necessities of life for every human being. It’s clear agriculture is cut from a different cloth. Yet, as unique as agriculture is, I can’t help but feel we’re
missing something if we only look to ourselves and our own offspring for ideas, talent and good people. Consider my mother’s experience. Other than the occasional elementary school field trip, my mother didn’t step foot on a farm until she was 21 and several years into college. The daughter of two doctors, she wasn’t the typical agricultural engineering student. She didn’t study agriculture because she was raised in it, wanted to continue a family tradition, or any of the reasons most of us born-and-raised farm kids continue down an agricultural career path. She studied agriculture because she found it fascinating. See TALENT page 14 Ag Mag 13
