The 92nd Iowa FFA Leadership Conference in Ames has been cancelled this weekend due to COVID-19 guidelines, but that doesn’t mean the spotlight still can’t be shined on the Guthrie County area students who were set to attend.

Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center junior EmmaKay McClain had advanced from the District Convention in the Public Speaking Career Development Event. The title of her speech was “PETA’s Positive Influence on the Agriculture Industry.” A speech referring to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals usually perks up the ears of those involved in FFA and agriculture McClain says, but her speech discusses the effectiveness of the organization’s social media dissemination, and how the agriculture industry can take cues from them, “And I talk about transparency and how our generation needs to be the generation that changes the way the public looks at agriculture. And we need to do that by being completely transparent with our consumers about how their food is being produced and why it’s being produced the way it is. And finally I talk about advocate, how we need to advocate strongly and very passionately about the agriculture industry and about what we do on both small and large farm operations.”

This is McClain’s first year attending ACGC schools, and despite the cancellation of the state convention and not being a chapter officer, she says this year has gone well and she’s been able to use her leadership skills in other ways. You can hear more from McClain during today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program, the first of a series of interviews with Guthrie County area FFA members this week on air and at raccoonvalleyradio.com.