Ag leadership depends on those who show up Ed Wiederstein, a former president of the Iowa FFA, is now president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. Leadership is one of those vague but nice sounding words everybody likes to talk about but few people can define. Audubon farmer Ed Wiederstein, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation president, describes it as showing up and getting things done.
Leadership is a matter of priorities.
You make your town, state, church or school a priority. You show up for meetings. You learn about the issues. Eventually, people start listening to what you have to say. But in a state where the average age of the farm population is rising and the total number of farmers is falling, Wiederstein concedes farm organizations and other groups need to encourage rural residents and farmers to include items other than their farm business on their priority lists.