Tewalt story

I sat down with Chanel Tewalt, director of the Idaho Department of Agriculture and recipient of the 2024 Defender of AG Award. I've been in the director role about two years. Prior to that, I was with the department for many years and I learned from many talented staff members. Got to wear a lot of hats. But it's funny that I ever made it into government in many ways, because I grew up in an area in the Klamath Basin that was not very government friendly. Government was something, particularly the federal government that caused pain in people's lives. And that is very foundational to the way that I approach my role to always understand that we have to be serving agriculture, and if we're not serving, what are we doing? I grew up in production AG, specifically in a livestock operation. That's actually how I met my husband when we met at a livestock show. And we have tried. Even though we have now jobs in town, we have tried as much as possible to hold on to our roots, and it's very important to us. So we're raising our kids in agriculture. And so we continue to have a seedstock sheep operation and show lambs, which is great. Our kids are starting to show. We sell lambs across the country as much as we can, and it's been such a beautiful thing in our lives to have our kids maintain the thing that was most important to us growing up. The thing I mean, it's the reason that we met and we very much want our family to hold on to that. Speaker1: I've worked with director Tewalt for years, even prior to her esteemed new position, and found her a fabulous communicator and colleague.