If you have known me for a while, I don’t think you would question this at all. You’d probably say, “she’s just always had a passion for it.” Which is 100% true, but sometimes I do ponder why it became such a passion of mine. I remember from a young age always being outside and soaking up the bright sunshine and vibrant colors of growing seasons. When I was younger, my love for animals, specifically cattle, was strong. I started 4-H from the young age of 5 and when I got to 3rd grade (how old is that? 8-9?) my mom finally let me get into showing my first bottle calf. For me, showing was always a fun outlet. I know I didn’t have the best-looking show stock, but those calves all had special places in my heart. It wasn’t until 8th grade when I decided, cattle involved too much science and you had to keep their heart beating 365 days of the year. Don’t get me wrong, I still love cattle and I continued to show through my senior year of high school, but since 8th grade I made up my mind to move into agronomy and learn more about crops, weeds, and soils. Once in college I knew I was in the right program. Never once questioned if it was what I wanted to do.
Now my senior year of high school, I earned a scholarship through a local dairy. To receive this scholarship, I had to become and advocate for agriculture. An Agvocate. I spent the summer months before school started to prepare and learn about hot topics in agriculture. You know, GMO’s, sustainability, antibiotics in livestock, and the safety of our food. Throughout the school year, I was to give 9 elementary classroom presentations or projects, 1 high school classroom presentation, and 1 adult meeting presentation. I grew so much my senior year learning how to speak and present in front of a crowd and I think what made it so easy was it was topics I held close to my heart and found important. In any speech classes I had throughout my high school years, I always found a way to include agriculture and talk about it. Growing up in what I would consider a farming community, I still felt there was a lack of connection to agriculture. It was like no one wanted to talk about its importance and people just wanted to believe what some celebrity had to say (even when what they were say wasn’t true).
My biggest goal with my blog is to hopefully share my side of the agricultural world. I work first hand with it everyday at my job. I also have a front row seat for it because of my boyfriend’s family farm. I have had years of exposure from my own family’s hobby farm. My great-grandparents made a living off of farming (the farm that is still operating today by my mom’s uncle and cousin!) Farming and agriculture is all around me, and it’s all around you too! No matter what role you have or even if you don’t have any relation to the direct farm, you still depend on agriculture. One of my favorite sayings, “Remember, without farmers, you would be hungry, naked and sober!” Welcome to my story.
With love,
Victoria
Farming, Fitness, and Food with Victoria 