“Farmers” and “country kids”, “boots” and “jeans”.Thinking about what FFA is, this seems to be the most common answer from non-members, “The majority of people in FFA aren’t [farmers and country kids], most of them come from town and are interested and want to know more about it.” says Maelee Allen, ‘24, MV FFA President.

“FFA is an organization for all students enrolled in agriculture education classes at the high school level, ” stated Ms. Cherie Rogier, MV FFA Head Advisor. Agriculture has been stated by many ag students as “not just farming” (Maelee Allen, ‘24). “Agriculture [is] in everything these days,” said Braxton Dent, ‘25, MV FFA Sentinel. 

FFA does a number of things, from community service activities to multiple different competitions over the year.

Morgan Payne, ‘26, MV FFA Jr. President stated, “[FFA does] lots of community service acts like recycling, doing food drives, can drives, coin drives. We also do tons of CDEs (career development events) and LDEs (leadership development events) and get kids involved with other kids from our section and other schools and get them to make new friends.”

FFA is also not only for farmers.

“[When it started out] it was called, ‘Future Farmers of America’, and now it’s not technically called that anymore it’s just ‘The National FFA Organization’, it was originally started for the farmers, and the more it came along, now it is for all things ag,” Payne said.

Some believe there is a stereotype about FFA.

“I do think we have a stereotype that follows us around. FFA used to stand for ‘Future Farmers of America’ but that was changed in 1988, so its been over 30 years that the name has not meant that, but the letters ‘FFA’ will always kind of be associated with ‘Future Farmers of America’. So I get a lot of students that come into my class, and they don’t necessarily know what they’re getting into, but they do think that its a lot about farming,” Ms. Rogier mentioned.

“Yes, I think it is stereotyped to just country kids and farm kids and kids that wear boots and jeans. Most of the kids in FFA don’t even live close to a field. Very few are actually ‘country’. Most of them are from [town] and just want to get into it, and FFA gives them that chance to get a taste of [agriculture],” Braxton Dent, ‘25.

It seems as though this alleged stereotype may be real and resonate throughout the school.

“What I think of FFA and agriculture is soil, and anything to do with plants such as corn and beans,” stated Cam Meyer, ‘25.

Aaron Scarber, ‘25, stated his opinion on FFA. “[FFA is] farm stuff. Soil, farmland, livestock, boots, and jeans. Just overall farming.”

Agriculture and FFA are both labeled as only farming, while they both have little to do with “production agriculture” and farms.

“Because so many more members of society were involved in a family farm, so [FFA] was founded as a production agriculture group but as it has grown and as times have changed, its really grown beyond that to focus on the 300 careers in agriculture and the 98% of jobs in the ag industry that are off the farm,” said Ms. Rogier.

One thing stands for sure through these believed stereotypes; FFA leaves a lasting impact on its members.

“I did take [an ag class] and it clearly changed the trajectory of my life because I wanted to be an architect and now here I am as an ag teacher,” Ms. Rogier said.

Payne stated, “I took an ag-class and it was the best thing I ever did.”