Notes from the Field: Challenges and Opportunities associated with Empowering Rural Youth for Social Change – Foregrounding Their Agency and Advocacy

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The late U.S. Congressman John R. Lewis, a former agrarian himself hailing from rural Alabama, a Civil Rights activist, a humanitarian, an advocate for non-violent protest, a moral compass of our nation, as well as author of the so-named book and lifelong practitioner of Good Trouble. Lewis said:
. . . Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part. (McCarthy & Gralki, 2020, para. 13)
Agricultural and natural resources, which undeniably encompasses sectors essential for human survival and prosperity, also has a long history of social injustices, deprivations, and social upheavals that are transnational in character, influence, and impact. Slavery and its vestiges such as tenancy; discriminatory lending practices revealing race, ethnicity, and/or gender biases; transport, storage, and related infrastructure inequities between farmers, farming communities, and regions; even unequal access of resource-poor farmers to Extension and advisory services enumerate but a few of the longstanding and pernicious issues facing the world’s producers of food and fiber and stewards of its natural resources. As such, future generations of agriculturists from all corners of society must be prepared to populate the sector on equal footing with their more traditional or normalized peers whether that means presenting alternative life choices to heteronormativity; debating proponents of only commercialized and chemicalized production systems or advocating for more humane approaches to rearing livestock and poultry; rural youth striving to meaningfully contribute to their towns and villages; or aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to lift their communities through sustainable and socially responsible agricultural ventures.
This panel will represent the voices of groups seldom heard or recognized as important actors in the world’s food and fiber system. These range from pre-college LGBTQ+ youth enrolled for courses in and about agriculture, including career preparation for such, to the opportunities and challenges of engaging youth in the civic life of their communities, to experiences augmenting the views and voices of university undergraduates studying agriculture, to Sub-Saharan African entrepreneurs undergoing professional and leadership development to better capacitate themselves to impact their nations’ agricultural and natural resource sectors while lifting local communities.
Four proposed panel discussion topics include:
Attracting LGBTQ+ Youth to the Agriculture Sector through Welcoming Educational Spaces: Protesting by Claiming Agency in School-based Agricultural Education (SBAE)
Empowering Critical Perspectives: Civic Engagement of Agricultural Youth begins at Home but Should Not End There
Exploring the Voices of Agricultural Undergraduates around Contentious Issues and Wicked
Problems to Protest and Advocate with Principles and Purpose
Professional and Leadership Development of African Agricultural Entrepreneurs: Protesting by Increasing the Economic Empowerment of often Marginalized Communities
These topics cohere around groups of youth too often unappreciated, under-estimated, and unutilized who possess energy, passion, and enthusiasm but may need direction, mentoring, opportunities, and resources to become sufficiently catalyzed and enabled to reach their potential. The world needs agriculture’s bounty, which necessitates vibrant rural spaces where most of it is created, and the sector needs for ALL members of society to feel genuinely invited to participate in that noble endeavor. “Young people are capable, when aroused, of bringing down the towers of oppression and raising the banners of freedom.” –Nelson Mandela

Sub Unit

• Educational Improvement SIG

Chair

• Michael C Edwards, Oklahoma State University

Individual Presentations

• Attracting LGBTQ+ Youth to the Agriculture Sector through Welcoming Educational Spaces: Protesting by Claiming Agency in School-based Agricultural Education (SBAE) - Tyler Price

• Professionalizing Agricultural Entrepreneurs from Marginalized Communities to Protest through Increased Economic Empowerment - Mahamane CISSE, Georgia Gwinnett College