By the time she was a teenager, Natasha Mortenson knew her career path would involve agricultural education.

The Morris native, who grew up on a crop farm, received her ag education degree from the University of Minnesota and worked for 14 years as an ag ed teacher and FFA adviser at Morris Area High School. She was here when Riverview LLP contacted her in 2015.

“They were looking at the disconnect between rural and urban communities, and lack of understanding about agriculture and decided to do something about it,” Mortenson says. “So they asked me to consider applying for a new position — community relations and education.”

It was a hard decision for Mortenson to make. She loves teaching and was a highly respected, award-winning ag teacher at her school. Still, she decided to take on the challenge and was granted a three-year teaching sabbatical by the school board.

Now, she travels in five states, teaching a wide variety of ag subjects to kindergarteners through postsecondary education students.

“Seventy percent of my time is in the classroom or getting students on the farm touring or working hands-on with the livestock,” she adds.

Riverview welcomes on-farm visitors and provides several educational programs, tours and lab experiences for students from sixth grade through college. The farm also offers college internships in accounting, communications, construction, beef feedlot, calf care, crop production and dairy production.

Related:Riverview takes ag literacy up another notch

Mortenson helped start a dairy calf lease program last year to help youth get involved in 4-H without having to buy an animal. Twenty-four youth participated from April until the county fair in August. The program was so successful that Riverview plans to expand it to another three counties and offer it again this year. Thus far, 50 youth have signed up.

She also manages Riverview’s Agriculture Advocacy Leadership Program that is open to middle school students in the Chokio-Alberta, Benson, Hancock, Herman-Norcross, KMS, Morris Area, Wheaton, and Willmar school districts. The "agvocacy" program strives to educate and develop young leaders in the agriculture industry. They are required to go through training and give local presentations throughout the school year. Upon successful completion of the program, each agvocate receives a $2,000 scholarship. Students do not need a production ag background to apply. They need to have a strong interest in ag and planning to pursue a career in the industry.

Mortenson is quick to point out that her work on community relations and ag education isn’t just to promote Riverview.

“My focus is No. 1, agriculture in general. Two, dairy and beef farming. And three, Riverview,” she says. “I want consumers to know about farms and food.”

On-farm tours also are an important component of her job. In her discussions with non-farmers, Mortenson says there is ongoing need for them to know that people in ag care about the environment and their animals. The best way for them to learn that is to visit a farm and see it firsthand.

“Riverview wants kids and people here on the farm. Even animal rights activists are welcome to tour,” she adds.

Common vision for farm business
Riverview, based in Morris, formed a partnership in 1995 that allowed several community members to invest in a new 800-head dairy at the time. Since then, it has evolved into a diversified agribusiness which includes dairy, beef, agronomy and construction enterprises with facilities in Arizona, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico and South Dakota. Today, the company is 70% owned by Riverview employees, who strive to follow the company’s core values of respect for each other, the land, the animals and their communities. Riverview owns 11 dairy farms and will be opening its 12th dairy in late June north of Wheaton. Its largest Minnesota dairy, based in Pennock, milks 8,500 cows. The new dairy will milk 7,000 cows.

As an owner at Riverview, Mortenson says she sees the benefits of pooling resources and talents, rather than trying to farm separately.

“We can focus on our strengths,” she says. “For me, that’s people and community.”

Plus, neighbors and friends benefit from working with Riverview. Some have business agreements to grow feed and to take manure for crops. Because of the original farm family, neighbors and friends were able to work together with common goals, Mortenson says, and Riverview was able to grow.