A Transgenic World: Investing in our agricultural future

There was a flyer laying on the table at work advertising the fact that Bayer and the 4H were teaming up. My first experience with that team-up was an awesome.. On a weekend in January I got to go with some of my colleagues to participate in the 4H National Youth Summit Series on Agri-Science in Chevy Chase, Maryland. This is just a few miles outside of DC although I quickly found out a mile in DC takes a lot longer to travel than in my town. I thought I would share my experiences including some great time in the city itself.

The teamup with Bayer meant I got to know a little more about the 4H.

The first question I had is what do the H's in 4H stand for: They stand for head, heart, hands, and health. I even learned the 4H motto which is "TO MAKE THE BEST BETTER." Here is a little more about 4H taken from their website, https://4-h.org/

It's headquarters is located in Chevy Chase, Maryland and that was our first stop to get checked in for the weekend.

DAY 1

It was time to drop in to center.

The site was bought by the 4H in 1959 where it had been a women's college. It now houses meeting rooms, dorm style hotel rooms, and a cafeteria for many 4H events like ours and can house over 800 people.

We had the rest of the day to explore before the keynote speaker that night. We had done a little pre-planning and scored a tour of the White House. If you haven't toured the White House, I highly encourage you to do so. It takes a little up front work, but it is worth it!

Here are just a few of the sites you would see in the white house

Then it was off to the Holocaust Museum and Arlington Cemetery, with a pass by the Washington Monument. These are some tough places to visit, but a powerful story awaits.

Back to the 4H center the first speaker was Stephen Censky, the US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. He gave a positive message to all the kids about agriculture and their future in the Ag industry. Couple of the things he mentioned were:

“if you want a challenging career, pick #agriscience bc in next 32 years we have to produce as much food as last 10,000 years.”

“Do right and feed everyone.”

DAY 2

The day started off with a career fair. There were people from multiple jobs in agriculture including, Bayer, the US Park Service, and many others.

The was followed by a speaker from the University of the District of Columbia. I learned that this university located in DC is actually a land-grant university that caters to urban farming. If your ever in the area check this place out which houses a large farm on the rooftop.

After these events we all took a field trip down to DC. During the day we went the Smithsonian, the Botanical Gardens, and a walk past the capitol building. Some beautiful sights as well as so much knowledge to take in at these amazing museums.

During the night we took a tour of five DC monuments at night. The stops included the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the MLK Memorial. They are beautiful in the day, but the night let's you see them in another perspective.

Speaking the MLK monument, this is one of my favorite quotes:

DAY 3

The last full day of the youth summit involved multiple workshops all through day. I attended a couple and then helped run some others.

The first one I attended was "Precision Farming - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and You." This was presented by Luke Zerby from New Holland. I can tell you that when it comes to technology agriculture is leading the charge. Your phone has a GPS accuracy of 16.4 Feet. That tractor going through the field with a GPS system has an accuracy of 6-9 inches. This is how ag is evolving and I can't wait to see how it plays out.

Speaking of Luke, here was an article I stumbled across after the workshop. http://precision.agwired.com/2016/04/22/new-holland-prepares-for-the-future-of-precision/

The second workshop that I went to was "The Growing World of Ag Technology" presented by the Nebraska Extension in Washington County. The extension educator is Tracy Behnken and she presented this workshop as a train the trainer. They have some awesome ideas to help show anyone from primary school on up to high school the importance of agriculture and the facts that support the need for continued innovation in the field. The posters they used can be replicated and for more information the Extension Center has info.

Here is what the program looks like and the extension center would be happy to help get you started.

The second activity from this workshop was how to make butter. This was a great way to help introduce to groups where our food comes from and is a fun, easy, and hands-on exercise.

I enjoyed myself!

Next the University of Maryland showed off a complete curriculum to help teach STEM to middle schoolers. Check this free resource out and use it!

https://extension.umd.edu/agsploration

Alright, now it was time to roll up our sleeves and help run some workshops.

The first workshop is one I have talked about before. The exercise lets students come pick a GMO or gene edited product concept and market it from start to finish. Product concept 1 was a product that gave pest control and product concept 2 gave a yield increase. They make many decisions along the way like whether to research internally or use a 3rd party and how many field trials they would run. Finally they would come up with their own product name and see how much profit they make based on the decisions they made.

We ran two sessions with 4 groups at each session and here are the 2 sets of product names.

The next 2 sessions we ran were some general hands-on and information on GMOs, traditional breeding and gene editing. First DNA extraction from strawberries ensued with Kurt showing where the DNA in a plant cell is located and how we were going to break it out..

Next we watched a video on trait research which i have shared before. But if you haven't seen it, it is a great one to watch.

And then Kurt had some fun showing the kids how GMOs, traditional breeding, and gene editing differ and why we need all these tools. Kurt even showed off his passion for GMOs !

For added effect Kurt had gotten some GMO Arctic Apples that are a product that does not brown like a traditional apple. The pictures speak for themselves. Both of these apples were cut in half at the same time.

Check their website out: https://www.arcticapples.com/