The FFA Creed is piece of writing held dear to many FFA members, both past and present. It  represents everything we as members want, stand for, and most of all believe. The creed turned 85 years old recently and a member created an SAE project around finding out the history, check it out!

https://www.ffa.org/about/who-we-are/ffa-creed/85th-anniversary

She Thinks My Drone is Sexy..?

Tractors are synonymous to farming and seem to always have been. Its like peanut butter and jelly, if you have one, you expect the other. It always has been this way, but will it always be that way? Some scientists say probably not. Right now there is the hypothesis that one day drones will replace the iconic tractor in the world of farming. ludicrous right? But maybe not. 

     Technology already exists so that farmers can control computer operated tractors, they don't even have to be in the tractor. So how far fetched is the use of drones? Maybe not so far fetched... 

The drones are predicted to help farmer maintain control over large ares of land. A primary use would be for surveillance. Sensors and cameras would allow the farmer to keep track of any activity in his fields without having to get on a tractor and go the x amount of acres out to the troubled spot.  Seems like a good deal. But for all the Die hard, "Stick to the basic" people, Don't fret. Technology such as this wont be mainstream for YEARS to come, especially on a grand everyday-use scale. 

So for now you can keep chuggin' along on the old John Deere.

Mission Trip Work at the Central PA Food Bank

Unlike last year, when I spent the week on the mission trip out up in the mountains surrounded by agricultural opportunities, this year I was placed in a very urban city; Harrisburg PA. Yet I still found my way to it anyways. Of the many projects, one that I enjoyed working on was the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. Two of the days I got to work sorting food. The first was canned or box goods that were being put into small boxes that would be handed to families directly. My friends and I enjoyed this as we knew our efforts were directly affecting the people in the area.

  

   The second day we were there, we walked into the massive warehouse and were faced with 6 pallet-sized boxes of vegetables. Pounds and pounds of cucumbers, peppers, eggplants,squash, and zucchini. I have never seen so many vegetable in my life. Anyways, my job that day was to take those vegetables and sort them into new, also very large containers for processing at the warehouse. As you can imagine this process took a very long time and my group and I had the pleasure of getting to talking with some of the regular volunteers. Through these conversations we learned that they serve people as far as Maine and New York. nearly 44 million pounds of food went out of this small building. A lot of the time the Central Pennsylvania  Food Bank will take food produce that surrounding farms can not sell and package it for food-banks and soup kitchens. I found this interesting because it allows for people in need to actually get fresh, locally grown produce. Something that many of them have to go with out due to price. 

Some of the other days of the trip we got to work at a school in a greenhouse that was being implemented as an after school program. The program was a project created by a member of the Americorp, who was working in the city, to expose the children of the inner city to agriculture. It was a great time repairing and cleaning out their green house. 

California Riddled with Drought 

     Droughts are nothing new to the great state of California. The state has had to deal with the water shortages for years. In 2014 the mercury hit shocking temperatures and water levels were severely depleted. Citizens were urged to completely stop using water in whatever ways they could. the state also was destroyed by many fierce fires.  This year, a similar scenario  is developing. With summer  not even at its peak yet, and water supplies running out, it looks like there is a serious issue. 

   

  The drought started early this year and is only getting worse. Southern California is being engulfed by flames and the once green pine trees are now barren brown burnt sticks with scorched red needles raining off fried limbs. Through surveys taken by air craft over 999,000 acres of trees have been scorched by the flames. That is an estimated 12 million trees have been affected by the forest fires. These numbers are shocking as it is early in the season and the drought is only expected to worsen, 

     

The loss of so many trees is going to severely disrupt many parts of the ecosystems currently functioning in SoCal and the rest of the state. The incredible lack of water is also having a huge affect on the farming industry. California is a major nation wide producer and with its crops failing because of dehydration, availability of items will go down as prices go up. The world can only wait and watch to see the effects this catastrophe has. 

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-trees-dying-california-drought-20150505-story.html