The area extension agents were also very dedicated to seeing this happen, in many ways they reminded me of FBM instructors who gave much of their time and energy but were stretched very thin. The highlight of the trip was the opportunity to visit three rural elementary schools. The schools were short on supplies and equipment but what they lacked the teachers made up for through ingenuity. Teachers and students alike were overjoyed by the supplies we brought them and loved seeing themselves on both the digital and video cameras. Winter with its high fuel bills, high snowdrifts and low temperatures are only a memory.
Spring is the time to look ahead to the coming year and beyond.
An article I read recently by Jerry Carlson for Pro Farmer about an Iowa soybean producers tour of Brazil really made me take a closer look at agriculture here in the U.S. Brazilian agriculture today is similar to US agriculture 150 years ago. Well established and growing with the current technology. The state of Mato Grasso is about the size of the entire Midwest. They are clearing raw land and making it productive, then exporting the products out of the developing region just like our great-grandfathers. Fields of soybeans up to 60,000 acres make up farms that are up to 400,000 acres in size.