You have an opportunity to help honor a person in the agriculture industry with the Allies for Agriculture bimonthly award from UPL.
Listen to the report:
“Allies for Agriculture is a program that UPL and some of our industry partners put together to come in and recognize those people in our food production system that really contribute. They’re those unsung heroes that we think deserve to be recognized just because they do a lot of things for our communities. They do a lot of things to make sure we have food security,” explained Alan Kennedy, Western Regional Manager for UPL. “We just think it’s a good thing to recognize them, especially coming out of a COVID environment where we really are starting to understand just how important it is to make sure that we have a sustainable food supply.”
Kennedy says people in many aspects of the industry qualify for the honor.
“An unsung hero can absolutely always be a producer, a farmer, a rancher. It can be someone that is in the industry to supply those inputs to farmers to help them grow a sustainable and nutritious food supply. It can also be people in transportation such as truck drivers and people that logistically help get things from the turnrow to the table,” he said. “And in my mind a lot of times they’re also people that work in grocery stores and food banks. It could be really anybody that just helps someone else have nutritious food on the table.”
Those who are chosen will receive a $250 gift certificate to the restaurant of their choice, and a $1000 donation will be made in their name to a community food bank. Kennedy says the program touches him personally.
“One thing for me more personally than just the overall approach is it speaks to me in the fact that for those of us that grew up in FFA, in the creed it talks about believing in the life abundant and enough honest wealth to help make it so for ourselves as well as others. That life abundant, that’s really what this is,” he said. “It’s recognizing those people that are helping all of is having an abundant life by making sure that we have food security, we have good nutritious food and just really making sure that that is well-served in our food production system.”
Anyone can nominate a deserving individual, and it’s as easy as heading to www.alliesforagriculture.com and clicking the nominate button. Winners will be announced on a bimonthly basis beginning in July. Winners’ stories will be featured on the Allies for Agriculture website, which UPL plans to make an educational resource that showcases how the different stages of the food chain work together to ensure food security.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.