You met two of the four finalists in the 2016 CountryMark/Indiana Prairie Farmer youth essay contest earlier. Now hear what Max Parkinson and Haley Ritzert have to say about how Indiana could grow its ag economy in the future. Both are members of Mount Vernon FFA.

Parkinson placed third and Ritzert placed fourth in the contest. Perhaps Indiana’s ag industry and ag officials should check out their ideas.

Here is Parkinson’s essay:

“To improve our state’s farming industry, I would make them start young. Indiana has many school requirements, also known as state standards. Since Indiana is one of the top-grossing farm states in revenue, why don’t we have agricultural standards?

GROW MORE KNOWLEDGE: Essayist Max Parkinson says if more people knew what farmers did, it would increase support for agriculture. Visitors to the Glass Barn at the Indiana State Fair learn more about agriculture.

“If Indiana wants to keep being great in farming, we need to increase the amount of knowledge people have. We need the next generations of children to be tech-savvy and understand farm equipment. The more people know about something, the more they can improve it.

“Indiana needs to require at least two years of an agriculture or agricultural mechanics class. Those who take interest will take more classes. This could lead to more jobs and better growth for the state. The more people get familiar with farming, the more people can understand how crucial it really is.

“Many people don’t realize the purpose of farming. Why? They’ve never been able to understand what goes into it and what comes from it. Obviously, every child pokes fun at people saying, 'If they don’t like farmers and what they do, then they shouldn’t complain about the food they eat.' But people understanding the farming process would open up a lot of opportunities.

“To keep it short and simple, the future of children is what decides how much more Indiana can prosper. State standards need to change to allow people to be exposed to the agricultural need. Children need to understand that farming is the main income of Indiana. Without farming, Indiana doesn’t have much to choose from. This is such an important aspect that people need to understand.”

Another point of view

Here is Ritzert’s essay:

“Growing agriculture in a state can be one of the hardest things to do. It would involve all of the farmers to increase the amount of crops they produce. It would be hard but a benefit for our world. We would have to start with one state and go from there. For example, Indiana could be the start of something new and amazing.

“If every state increased their produce, we would possibly have enough food to feed our country. At this exact moment, people are starving because we are not able to produce the amount of food needed to feed everyone. Indiana could start by making unused land for crops.

“They could also make a rule that farmers need to produce a certain amount of produce on a yearly basis. By making a certain amount that a farmer has to produce, we would be able to raise the amount of produce altogether. Indiana could be making enough to possibly feed all the people in the state of Indiana, or even possibly more than that.

“When Indiana almost doubles its produce amount, other states might follow as well. If all the other states follow behind Indiana by using unused land to farm and establishing a minimum to how much crops a farmer can produce, every state would be surprised with how much the amount of crops they are producing goes up.

“If Indiana increases their amount of farmland acreage, there could be more people joining the ag industry. If we have more people producing food, we would be better off because we could possibly make our goal to produce enough food for everyone to eat. More jobs will open up in the agriculture field if that happens.”