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Editorial
Students, sponsors making important investment in future
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Your life depends on agriculture.
In Nebraska, especially, your livelihood and your life itself depend on producing food from the earth itself.
Five pages in today's edition celebrate FFA and the Future Business Leaders of America.
It's a happy marriage between education and enterprise, raising up tomorrow's agricultural producers and business people who will make sure those products reach the people who need them.
National FFA Week, Feb. 20-27, encompasses Feb. 22, the birthday of George Washington.
We know him as the father of our country, but Washington thought of himself as a farmer first.
It was of necessity at first, of course. He needed to make a living and improve his famous farm, Mount Vernon.
While he initially grew tobacco as a cash crop, he later switched to grains such as wheat in 1766. Lest his switch from tobacco leave him open to be called a prude, some of those grains went into the whiskey distillery he built in later years.
Washington was always interested in new husbandry methods, trying a variety of fertilization methods and crop rotation plans on his five farms.
FFA was founded as Future Farmers of America by a group of young farmers in 1928 intent on preparing future generations for the challenge of feeding a growing population.
Diversity is as important today as it was in George Washington's day, members going on to careers as biologists, chemists, veterinarians, engineers and entrepreneurs.
FFA has undergone a rebirth at McCook High School in recent years, and joins a number of other active chapters around Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas.
Established in 1940, FBLA-PBL helps high school, middle school and college students transition to the business world. FBLA-PBL is the largest student-run organization in the United States of America, with 253,365 members, and one of the largest business-related organizations in the world. It is one of the top 10 organizations listed by the U.S. Department of Education.
Congratulations to students and sponsors for their contribution to our future.