Day 5-Challenging Our Perceptions to Understand Our Reality

It’s our fifth day in our nation’s capitol and the leadership lessons continue to flow like the Potomac.

As in previous days, our schedule has been packed with visits with a diverse set of perspectives on the issues affecting agriculture, our state and our nation.

We started our day at the Animal Agriculture Alliance, an organization that represents the interests of animal agriculture in the United States.  This session continued to amplify the need, we in the agricultural community, have to reach out and educate our neighbors as well as those in public office who represent us.  It is to our mutual benefit that we share our experience, our understanding and our expertise in providing the safest and most abundant food supply in the world.

Class 41 Fellows at Agriculture Animal Alliance

Later in the morning we met with Dr. Craig Shiffries, Director for Geoscience Policy at the Geological Society of America.  Our class had a very provocative conversation on the science behind climate change, and the data behind the increase of Carbon in our atmosphere.  Dr. Shiffries spoke to us about the gaps in communication between industry and policy makers and why it is important to bring all stakeholders to the table.  As our class realizes how open the policy making process can be, the perception many of us had coming in is being challenged for the better.

In order for agriculture to be at the negotiating table, we must challenge our own status quo, and get out of a defensive mindset to develop and communicate a positive vision; as leaders we must deliver a compelling message of the importance of agriculture to our state and nation.  Agriculture must be able to speak our needs and concerns in order for policy makers to better understand the impact on our livelihoods.

Jorge Suarez, Juan Guzman and Vernon Peterson



One of the highlights of our day was the opportunity to meet at one of the world most influential, most quoted and most trusted think tanks in the world, The Brookings Institution.  Class 41 had a presentation by Dr. Adam Looney, senior fellow in Economic Studies and policy director of The Hamilton Project.   Dr. Looney discussed Labor, economics and immigration.  One of the most critical issues to California agriculture is the need for a stable and plentiful workforce to harvest the crops that our produced in our state.  The reality of the impact of immigration on our economy is extremely complex and has many dimensions.  As leaders in agriculture, we must be equipped with the facts and the tools to better communicate our story about how immigrant workers not only contribute to the viability of agriculture but also to the economy as a whole.   As we get deeper into the study of this issue, in preparation for our trip to Arizona, we will take this knowledge with us to have a more informed conversation and begin to deepen of our understanding of our role as leaders on this issue.

We are looking forward to our visit to Gettysburg as a proper capstone to the Washington DC leg of our national trip.

----- Cesar Hernandez, Joey Mendonca and Matt Toste