Raising cows, picking blueberries, shucking corn, spraying soy beans, cutting sorghum, and putting in tobacco are

all processes that I have been a part of in my life. So many of my peers are not able to say the same thing. I can remember in elementary school my friends asking me Katelyn why are you wearing a John Deere shirt? Thats a tractor you have never ridden a tractor. I was extremely confused and my peers comments puzzled me. At this time I did not realize that not everyone grew up with a background and family in farming or agriculture. Since for as long as I can remember agriculture has played an important role in my life, and my grandpa and daddy are who I have to thank for that. When I was younger I can remember being carried up into the cabs of tractors and combines to ride in my daddys lap to spray, plant, disk, or just ride around a field. I thought that was the best thing in the world. I was the little blue-eyed blonde girl with pigtails and ribbons in my hair proudly wearing a My daddy drives a John Deere t-shirt. My grandpas family on my daddys side had been involved in agriculture for a very long time. As a little girl I would get to just enjoy the farm by seeing the fun side. This was not the case for my daddy of grandpa they grew up working on the farm. Therefore they became literate in agriculture at a younger age than me. There are a few differences between my daddys early life on the farm versus mine. He has always told me stories about how grandpa had taught him how to work on the farm as a young boy. In my early years working and helping on the farm would not exactly be the adjectives you would use to describe my involvement. I think my grandpa and daddy thought of me as just a sweet little girl and wanted me to be able to choose what I wanted to do in my life; I do not think they had this choice they were just kind of born into the

farm life and expected to work hard to help the family. I guess I would say I participated in the fun aspects of agriculture as a child. I was basically at the farm when everything was going right, but if something was broken or something had gone wrong I was left with my mama or grandma. I am very thankful for this because I think it gave me a positive outlook on agriculture. I saw it as something that was a part of my roots and how it is very important to the world we live in. As I grew older and could make decisions for myself I decided that I wanted agriculture to be a part of my life. Not only did I want to be along side my daddy in the equipment, but I wanted to know how and why stuff worked. When my grandpa passed away it made an impact on my life and it really made me want to be involved. I was so proud of everything he had done. That little farm in Broadway was such a major part of his life. He was there when times were rough, when his patience was tested, and then when things were going good. I have failed to mention this but my daddy does not work on the farm as his job per say. He works as a grading contractor all day and when he gets off at five he comes home just to change trucks and head to the farm. Needless to say when grandpa passed away daddy had to take on so much more responsibility at the farm. I wanted to ease this weight on his shoulders so when he would get home I would jump in the truck and ride to the farm and assist him in any way that I could. I have really enjoyed this type of learning; it is hands-on and my daddy is my teacher. It is so much better than sitting at a desk reading a textbook and writing papers. Throughout my four years in high school my involvement in agriculture has really turned into a passion. In high school I took an agriculture class every year and became a member of the FFA my freshman year. I served as parliamentarian my sophomore year,

secretary my junior year, and as a senior I was the Lee County High School FFA president. I am sure this made my grandpa smile up in heaven and I know it made my daddy proud. In addition to my involvement in agriculture at school my senior year I decided to become a member of the Lee County Area Farmers. From when I was young up until this past year my literacy of agriculture has come from my daddy and grandpa. This past year was different because I decided that I wanted to become a member of the Lee County Area Farmers. By becoming a member of the group I now had a new way to learn information about agriculture. I attended meeting where speakers would come in and tell you the dos and donts on farms today. We read many packets of information as well as taking our own notes. The monthly meetings about learning new things in North Carolina farming were something I looked forward to. Now as a an undecided freshman at UNCC I am not exactly sure what I want to study, but I know for sure that I want to be a part of North Carolina agriculture and farming. Yes, it is true that you learn a lot about farming by someone just teaching you hands-on how to do stuff, but a large part involves reading and writing. You must read the packages of seeds and fertilizer to know how much you mix with what and what amount gets spread on to the crop and what time frame you have from planting the seeds until the next time you have to spread fertilizer. There is a lot of reading involved and it is key because if you do not read your labels or directions correctly you can kill all of your plants. In addition to reading packages you have to pay attention to what is going on around you. You need to keep up with other local farmers reports to be able to tell what is working and what isnt in their fields.

On the opposite hand there is a lot of writing and book keeping involved. In North Carolina now-a-days you have to keep track of the dates where you did anything. You have to have the date that you spread fertilizer on the field, when you planted the seeds, if you went back and put any more fertilizer on top, and the list goes on. Not only the dates but also you have to have maps of all of your land and document where everything is and what is on each plot of land. You may not have anything but a grassy pasture but you better be sure you label it that. These are the aspects I am becoming more involved in today. Now I dont just ride around in the tractor when daddy is planting the fields. Most of the time you can find me with a piece of paper jotting amounts of chemicals went into the sprayer, how many bags of seeds we have planted, how many bushels we have harvested, or what day it is and what we are doing. I like the fact that agriculture is very hands-on and you get to do many many things, but I also like the fact that you have to be organized. I think that my literacy of agriculture has evolved from not really being literate in the matter to becoming literate from my family, to then deciding to learn from community members, to now me having to make the decision of if I will choose to study it more in college and make it my career. Mainly, agriculture is important to me because it has been so important to my family. I learned about agriculture on our farm from my grandpa and daddy. They are who I have to thank for this personal literacy. As a young girl and not being expected to do work on the farm, but more that I should be able to enjoy it makes me such a lucky person.

I think I am very different from other girls. While I did take dance classes when I was young and I cheered from elementary school throughout high school that has never been my entire life. I cannot explain the feeling of working along side my daddy, bringing him tools, and helping him get fields ready to plant. It is unlike anything else learning from someone who is so important to me. It means so much more to me because it has been passed down from generation to generation and I just want to continue in the cycle. I think that I am very lucky to be able to say that agriculture is one of my personal literacies, because it is losing its importance to the regular population. No longer are people concerned about where their products come from. The only thing they are worried about is having it in their hands. American people want good products, cheap products, and they want the products as fast as they can get them. The amount of people involved in agriculture is decreasing all the time. Sometimes people get out of it because they want to, but many times its because the family farm can just not afford to compete with the larger commercial sized farmers. What does this mean? With a growing population and demand for more agricultural products fewer farmers have to produce more and they have to produce faster. For the smaller family farms it means that cannot even make any money because they cannot afford to sell their products as cheap as the commercial size. If they did they would be losing even more money. Agriculture is a very delicate cycle but it is essential to life. For my project I have chosen my discourse community to be the Lee County Area Farmers. This is a group of farmers from Lee and surrounding counties in North Carolina who come together because of their involvement in agriculture. The

majority of the members are men with the exception of a few females myself being included. Even though time has passed and we have had to cut down on our crop diversity and eliminate livestock altogether, agriculture still plays a major role. This is the story for many of the Lee County Area Farmers members except many of them do farming as their full time job, but for my daddy its more of something that he chooses to continue to do when he is not working at his job as a grading contractor. When you look at agriculture and the population all of the new types of jobs may be something to consider. No longer does everyone own a farm and use this as their primary source of income for their family. Families no longer have children to use as an extra pair of hands to help get work done, but now children are raised to believe that they can do anything that they want. Back in the day everyone owned a farm and they had to do all of the hard work that came along with it. I feel as though this is one of the major problems in my discourse community. We are no longer a society who wants to put in the hard work it takes to get something done. People want to find short cuts, easier routes, or someone else who can do it for them. In farming and agriculture this is not so much the case. While it is true that new tractors and machinery have been created to make growing crops easier they do not do everything. There is still some physical labor that goes into keeping the tractor running, getting the seed and spray loaded and to the field, just things that you cannot avoid. The majority of the population has forgotten about this. They have lost their appreciation for all of the hard work that goes into an ear of corn, piece or cotton, or a pod of soybeans.

This is where my solution comes into play. I think that the non-agricultural community needs to be educated about agricultural processes. I am in the process of giving out surveys/polls to a random sample of people to find out: 1) Are they involved in agriculture in anyway shape or form? 2) If they are involved in agriculture in what ways? 3) If not, do they understand the agricultural process? 4) If not, would they like to learn more about it? 5) If so, in what ways? Informative sessions, family fun days, attending a meeting, ect. By doing this I think I am going to be able to evaluate where the public stands. Right now my mindset is that the people not involved in agriculture do not understand agricultural processes nor do they care to, but maybe if they became informed they would have a greater appreciation for all of the work that farmers do. The research that I have done this far shows that I am not the only person with this concern. There are many people worried about agricultural importance in the community. While I feel like I am more educated that most, there are still tons of thing I do not know about agriculture. For example, this weekend I found out that agriculture brings in more money to North Carolina than any other type of business. I am not completely done with my inquiry project, and I plan to add more as I research and discover more.