CCFB News» September 2024

This summer, I have had the chance to experience what my rural family and friends would call the “full urban lifestyle.” I commute to work through traffic for half an hour every morning and afternoon with hundreds of other Chicagoland workers, I work in an office, and I complain when the dog next door uses the bathroom on my lawn. The place I call home is in west central Illinois. Back home, the commute to my job is a gravel road where I work with my family to raise cattle, and if a dog was using my lawn, I would be more concerned because the nearest house to us is too far for a dog to travel.

All this to say, I can now compare these two experiences, and I have learned two things. First, no matter where you are in the state of Illinois, people will complain about the conditions of the roads and the price of gas. Second, agriculture is just as important and present in Cook County as in rural Illinois.

Through my internship at the Cook County Farm Bureau, I have got to see firsthand the kinds of agriculture happening here. There are more apiaries here than I have ever seen, herbs growing in repurposed gutters, sunflower fields under train lines, and community markets growing food for the people around them. What I thought was my definition of agriculture has been challenged and adjusted after my summer here.

During events at the nearby zoos, library programs, teacher workshops, meeting urban farmers, and spending time with high school students, I have learned that there is a strong passion to understand the agricultural industry in Cook County. People are always interested in learning about where their food comes from, and the number of different careers related to agriculture.

When I was picking what I wanted my career to be, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the agriculture community. I thought about what I was good at, and I knew I was good at telling people chocolate milk does not come from brown cows and alpacas are very different than alfalfa. In all seriousness, I landed on agriculture education because I wanted to be in a profession that allowed me to learn more about what I am passionate about and share my knowledge with others.

Thank you so much to the Cook County Farm Bureau for giving me the opportunity to learn and grow this summer. My view of agriculture has been able to adapt and in turn, I can better understand this industry even better.