Future Farmers of America summer agriculture students not only understand where their food comes from, but they are actively involved in the process. Their summer has been spent growing their own food, raising livestock for auction, engaging with animals in the community and touring local agricultural sites.

“They choose their project and then we are just there to help them develop goals and help them improve through their project,” Jordan Academy of Technology and Careers agriculture instructor Sydnee Roholt said.

One of the most popular summer programs is raising sheep, goats and pigs to show and sell at the Salt Lake County Junior Livestock Show and auction taking place Aug. 6-9 at the Bastian Agricultural Center in South Jordan.

Miley Berg, a senior at Bingham High School, said the hands-on experience of caring for a lamb this summer has been good preparation for her future career as a veterinarian. She has learned what her lamb Eloise likes, where she prefers to be rubbed and how to calm her down.

Riverton High School junior Rachel Baggaley was excited for the chance to raise a lamb even though she knows it will be slaughtered for food.

“I eat meat and I understand and know where it comes from,” Baggaley said. “I know at least that she got someone that loved her, so I thought that it'd be better than her just not being cared about.”

Students become attached to their animals because they visit them every day all summer to feed, groom and train them. Jameson Evans became quite attached to his sickly goat last year as he nursed him back to health before he was donated to the food bank.

“I was happy that he was going to a family who needed him the most, and that's what really gets me through this, that they're going to the family that really needs the food,” he said.

Although Evans graduated from high school this year, he jumped at the chance to participate in the summer ag program one last time.

“I did it last year and it was super fun—it was the best summer of my life,” Evans said. “It 

Jordan School District students care for their animals, which are housed at the USU Bastian Agricultural Center. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

 brought me into an industry that I am passionate for, and I got another opportunity to do it even after I graduate so I was going to take the opportunity. It is honestly a life changing experience that I wouldn't trade for the world.”

He plans to get an agricultural teaching degree and to someday breed livestock for 4H clubs to help kids learn about where their food comes from.

“Most kids are sitting in their basements playing Minecraft or Fortnite and they don't really understand,” he said. “And so getting them out and about and learning about what it takes shows them there's a lot more that goes into it than just going to the grocery store and picking it up.”

Some students earned their summer ag class credits for a variety of experiences at the zoo, conservation gardens and tractor shows. Others counted the hours they worked at a doggy daycare or veterinary clinic. Many students’ projects centered on work they did at home, such as one student who raised mealworms to feed his family’s chickens.

“I have never seen a kid so proud of bugs,” Riverton High School agriculture teacher Kaylee Simpers said. 

Sarah Atkinson, a senior at Riverton High School, helped grow more than 15 kinds of vegetables in her family’s quarter-acre garden and three kinds of fruit in their orchard. This fall, she will be canning the fruits of her labors.

“I've been gardening with my mom since before I could remember, and it's been in my family for generations,” Atkinson said.

Students are responsible for feeding, training and grooming their animals in preparation for the livestock show. (Photo courtesy Sydnee Roholt)

Her love of gardening led Atkinson to take science and agricultural science classes at school. She learned about threats to the environment and agriculture industry and has been inspired to find solutions. Her FFA Agriscience Fair project, a proposed solution for preserving soil for irrigated barrier crops, took first place at state and qualified for the national fair in Indianapolis this November.

Atkinson plans to make a difference in the agriculture industry by studying biological engineering in college, but she believes everyone should be educated about how the food they eat is produced so they can make more environmentally-sustainable and ethical decisions about what products they buy.

“Where you get your food from really does matter, and there are some places that you get your food from that are actually really horrible,” Atkinson said. “There are countless food items that you see every single day at your grocery store that use child labor, or slash and burn agriculture or horrible amounts of herbicides and pesticides with no regard for the environment. So just being more aware of what foods are good and what foods are bad for the environment could really help make a change.”