This coming Tuesday evening, the advisory board for the Agriculture Program at Barton Community College meets with college personnel.  Board members come from the agribusiness community, area farmers, representatives from K-State and FHSU, high school agriculture educators and administrators. In fact, every program in the Technical Division of the College has an advisory board.
The mission of these boards is to help the College insure programs are providing students the background they need for their career path, help the College respond to changes in a given industry, assist programs in various ways to implement programming, and providing a sounding board for new ideas or programs. In the Agriculture Department the Crop Protection and Beef Cattle Production Certificate and degree programs are a direct response to needs brought forward by the advisory board. The curriculum for each program was developed in consultation with the agricultural community and this community helped provide support as these programs made their way through the approval process. And these individuals do this for no compensation as they see benefits to their industry and community.  All this is done so programs respond to the needs of both the student and the business community in order to further economic development. However, this arrangement isn’t unique in agriculture.
The next time you hear the Farm Bureau or Farmers Union has taken a stand on an issue, that the Extension Office is promoting a program, or news from a given commodity group or Co-Op, remember what you hear likely originated as the result of a board of people giving of their time to help solve problems, educate the public and members of their industry, develop consensus, and promote their industry.  While this isn’t unique to the agriculture industry, the agriculture community was among the first to realize the value of working together, that benefitting one benefits all.
What’s the purpose of this column? From Extension to Co-Ops and livestock associations to commodity groups, active committed people are needed to help, even if they don’t wish to serve on a board but can help in some way. As our society, even here, grows further from the farm, everybody’s help and input is needed to grow, protect, and get the message out on what agriculture means to the future our area, state, country, and even the  world.