WSDA Career Day

The Washington State Department of Agriculture and the Washington Future Farmers of America Foundation have joined together to give high school students an opportunity to learn and interact with WSDA professionals at five different educational career days around the state in October . WSDA’s Jason Kelly talks about the different ag industries being highlighted at the Career Day events.

KELLY: We’re going to focus on the tree fruit industry and the dairy industry, and the nursery/greenhouse, and row crops - just try and get a cross section of the different industries because we support them all in different ways. We know that there are FFA students who may be interested in different segments of the ag economy, and so we wanted to provide opportunities for folks all over the state who may be interested in different things.

The students will be participating in fruit and vegetable inspection processes, identifying destructive agricultural pests, the use of Geographic Information System and Global Position System technologies, and exploring the different aspects of animal health, food safety, and environmental stewardship and protection.

KELLY: We’re serving a global marketplace, so we’ve got to keep learning, keep changing the way we do business, and these young people - I know they’re going to be excited about what they see.

Kelly says interested students should apply through their school’s FFA teacher.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.