Nutrients for Life Working with Florida FFA Chapters

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Joan Kyle

Kyle

One of those attending this week’s Florida FFA State Convention is Joan Kyle with the Nutrients for Life Foundation. She talks about how various FFA Chapters across the state participate in their program.


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Kyle also presented several awards to winning chapters and students at the FFA convention Friday. For more about the awards and who won

Nutrients for Life Foundation Announces Winners of the Florida FFA
Helping Communities Grow Chapter Recognition Program

Lincoln Middle FFA Takes First Place Award Honors;
Fort White FFA Wins Second, and Hamilton County FFA Wins Third Place

Representatives of the winning Florida Helping Communities Grow program FFA chapters receive their awards from Joan Kyle, Nutrients for Life Foundation Florida Representative.  From left to right: Travis Theige, Joan Kyle, Nicole Liles, Nicole Lewis, Wayne Oelfke, Taylor Gebo, Doug Clayton, and Trey Norris

Joan Kyle, Nutrients for Life Foundation Florida Representative, awards Florida winners of the Helping Communities Grow Chapter Recognition Program. From left to right: Travis Theige, Joan Kyle, Ft. White FFA member Taylor Gebo, Ft. White Advisor Wayne Oelfke, Hamilton Advisor Doug Clayton, Hamilton FFA member Trey Norris, Lincoln FFA member Nicole Lewis, and Lincoln Assistant Advisor Nicole Liles.

The Nutrients for Life Foundation announced Lincoln Middle FFA as the first place winner of the 2014 Helping Communities Grow in Florida. The Lincoln Middle FFA wins $5,000 for addressing concerns of food availability, food quality, and stability in food production. Through gardening and educational presentations, they empowered chapter members, fellow students, and their community with the ability to grow their own fresh produce using methods suitable to small spaces and proper fertilization. At the conclusion of their Helping Communities Grow program, an FFA member poignantly reflected, “Watching my garden grow … knowing that it was me that grew everything. I liked knowing when I brought tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes home, that I was the one who grew them and I knew where they came from and the effort put into growing them. It helped me understand the difficulties of a farmer’s life.”

“The FFA chapters that participated in this year’s Helping Communities Grow chapter recognition program left our judges impressed with outstanding quality and creativity,” said Nutrients for Life Foundation Executive Director Harriet Wegmeyer. “These students put a tremendous amount of time and effort into educating their communities about the role fertilizers play in our lives. It is an honor to present these checks to such deserving students.”

The Fort White FFA won the second place award of $3,000. Through educational outreach, FFA members demonstrated to the community that plant nutrients are vital to the production of food in their own backyard. In preparation for their community outreach, FFA members studied Norman Borlaug, the father of the green revolution. A most significant moment occurred when the FFA members read that during the 1920’s Norman Borlaug’s agriculture teacher had his class conduct an experiment on their school’s land lab in which they tested the first hybrid corn. The FFA members realized they were performing research similar to Borlaug. The 7th grade FFA members, reading about the Dust Bowl, developed a prospectus on economic conditions, and consequences of poor farming methods during that time period. These gave credibility and significance to their project. A sense of purpose was established. The students and community learned firsthand of Best Management Practices in food production through the management of water and plant nutrients by the use of drip irrigation, soil testing, and plant nutrient application following Crop Nutrient Requirement recommendation and soil analysis. As a result of their experiments and research, Fort White FFA was able to donate 560 pounds of Mustard Greens valued at $1,120 to two charitable organizations servicing over 190 families.

The Hamilton County FFA chapter won $1,000 for their research on different aquatic plants to mitigate an aquatic environment by removing nutrients and evaluating the change in water quality. With hard work and determination these FFA members identified the best aquatic plants to draw up nutrients from water. Through their experiments, FFA members could see that the nutrients in the water made the plants grow quickly and also helped to clean the water. Besides cleaning water, the FFA members grew aquatic plants that have a food and monetary value that will help the Hamilton County FFA chapter be sustainable.

Students in participating FFA chapters developed and executed community-based education programs based upon the Nutrients for Life Foundation curriculum, Nourishing the Planet in the 21st Century. This free curriculum, developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study and reviewed by the Smithsonian Institution, provides field-tested, standards-based classroom activities to help tomorrow’s generation realize that the challenge of feeding our growing population can be solved with science.

During the Helping Communities Grow program, FFA chapter members teach others about the importance of fertilizer and the role that it plays in one of two categories: 1) providing a safe and nourishing food supply; or 2) keeping the Earth green. FFA chapters who entered projects but didn’t win the top three awards each received $500 mini-grants for their participation. The Helping Communities Grow chapter recognition program encourages FFA members to help the public become better informed about plant nutrients and related agricultural issues. During the project, students gained skills in leadership, public speaking, team building and community awareness while increasing knowledge of soil science and agricultural issues.

The Nutrients for Life Foundation program in Florida is supported by the program’s founding sponsor Agrium Inc. Florida FFA chapters are encouraged to submit letters of intent and pre-project summaries by the November deadline for 2014-2015 school projects. Details can be found at www.nutrientsforlife.org.