The Future Farmers of America (FFA) is an organization of over a million people in all 50 states plus two American territories. FFA was founded in 1928 with the mission of preparing future generations for the challenges associated with feeding a growing population. The agriculture industry has expanded over the past 100 years, and FFA has grown with it. Today, FFA members’ career goals range from farming to teaching to business to science. As the name suggests, FFA membership is comprised largely of middle and high schoolers, but it also includes young college students. The over 9,000 chapters nationwide utilize agricultural education as a pathway to personal growth, allowing members to develop leadership skills and explore a wide range of agricultural career paths. While young people are able to gain similar skills in other extracurricular activities like sports or in student leadership roles, few groups rival the comprehensiveness of the skills that can be learned through participation in the various FFA activities. Activities include classroom competitions, like quiz bowl and speaking events, and many career related events which vary depending on geography from grapevine pruning to showing livestock and learning ag mechanics. These activities allow FFA members to explore avenues within agriculture that they may be interested in while building personal skills, bettering their local communities, and engaging in the greater agricultural community.
FFA recently held its 97th National Convention and Expo in Indianapolis in October. The theme was “Engage.” This annual event draws a significant crowd, including sitting U.S. Presidents who occasionally come and speak to the massive crowd of future agricultural leaders. Former President Jimmy Carter was himself a member of FFA. This year’s convention had a special connection to Central Illinois. A University of Illinois student from Franklin, Illinois, Thaddeus Bergschneider, was elected to serve as the 2024-2025 National FFA President. Bergschneider was selected out of a pool of 37 candidates, following his term as the 2023-2024 Illinois State FFA President. Bergschneider has two primary goals that he aims to carry out over the next year. The first centers around connecting members to new perspectives on agriculture. With a significant amount of travel and meetings already set, Bergschneider plans to hear from current agribusiness leaders on where the industry is and where it may be going, while engaging FFA members nationwide with these businesses. Secondly, he plans to focus substantial dialogue on mental health, specifically within agriculture. This is something that he attributes to be one of the largest problems in the industry currently due to the stigma surrounding it. To combat the stigma, Bergschneider will continue to ask himself, “How can I as a leader be vulnerable and transparent?”
Bergschneider’s new role as the leader of a group of over a million young people and delegate for a national organization to both businesses and public entities carries with it a significant time commitment. As a result, Bergschneider will put college on hold after this fall semester. When asked about this particularly, Bergschneider said his is “not really the typical college experience” with many missed days already and emails to professors trying to work through absences and assignments. However, as an aspiring leader in the ag industry beyond his FFA presidential term, Berschneider appreciates this rare opportunity which includes both learning about business and engaging in agricultural research. While not the traditional college experience by any means, gaining a leadership position such as this at a young age is almost impossible in any other organization and brings with it responsibility that Bergschneider does not take lightly.
Bergschneider attributes much of his drive and ability to prepare for this opportunity to the lifestyle he lived growing up in Central Illinois. One of seven siblings growing up on a corn, soybean, and cattle farm in Morgan County, he was raised in an environment that gave him a huge, hands on appreciation for agriculture. Additionally, many teachers and leaders in his community supported him along the way. Berschneider values the foundation that brought him to this point, noting “I wouldn’t change my background if I had the choice.” Growing up in Central Illinois may not be as glamorous as the beachside of Florida or the mountains of Colorado, however for young people in agriculture, there are few better places to carry out the FFA creed “Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live and Living to Serve.”