Youth Ag Summit wraps up in Australia

Sep 09, 2015

Youth Ag Declaration will be presented in Rome in October 2015

Nearly 100 young leaders ranging from 18-23 years old and representing 33 countries converged in Canberra, Australia to participate in the Youth Ag Summit.

The summit, which took place from August 24-28, focused on the roles science and agriculture play in feeding a planet that’s estimated to have a population of nearly 9 billion people by the year 2050.

“To drive real outcomes from the 2015 Youth Ag-Summit we need to ensure the solutions and actions identified by the 100 delegates are communicated with key global policy and decision makers,” said Georgie Aley, Chair of Future Farmers Network Australia.

Youth Ag Summit
Laura Grubb, right, and Samba Ouma

During the summit the delegates, which included four from Canada and five from the United States, were charged with the task of coming up with a declaration to be presented at the United Nation’s Committee on World Food Security, scheduled to take place in Rome sometime in October 2015.

The themes and solutions involved in the Youth Ag Declaration include:

Developing a fair and open multi-channel platform for formal and informal educators in the agricultural industry to build greater skills through ongoing education
Globally promoting and enhancing the image of farmers and the breadth of opportunities in the agricultural industry
Enhance socially acceptable and responsible consumption through better education and utilization of current resources
Create a global network that links young innovators to agricultural needs to drive information sharing, funding and solutions
Develop a global youth platform to build a movement, and develop youth leaders through mentorship and education via youth groups

“It’s a huge opportunity; normally at conferences the information and ideas shared stay within the body of people that attended, but we have a unique opportunity to spread this around the globe to both developed and developing countries, across a range of different ecosystems, production systems, and cultures,” said Laura Grubb, an Australian delegate. “That means we can really put the goals we’ve developed at the Summit into practice and make a difference.”

Grubb, along with Kenyan delegate Samba Ouma will be presenting the declaration in Rome. Ouma said his first priority is to use social media to keep conversation about agricultural issues relevant and ongoing.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.