How FFA Chapters Teach Advocacy: Promoting Agriculture in Public Conversations
Leadership in Action: Officer Roles, Community, and Service
Speaking up for agriculture is a skill that many people assume will come naturally to those who grew up around it. FFA treats it as something to be taught. Its advocacy materials give members a model to follow, four audiences to practice on and examples ranging from a state capitol to a parody music video. This article lays out that framework, shows how chapters use it, and offers a short worksheet for planning a first advocacy effort.
- Key takeaway: FFA breaks advocacy into planning, developing, doing and reflecting, and it asks members to practice with audiences from peers to elected officials.
- Caution: the sources show methods and examples, not proof that members become effective advocates.
The Model
FFA’s Advocacy Experience page describes an Agricultural Literacy and Advocacy Model with four steps: plan, develop, do and reflect. It names four audiences members can reach: peers, the community, elected officials and elementary students (source). The reflect step matters, because a member who never asks what worked will repeat the same pitch every time.
Three Ways Chapters Practice
Face to face with lawmakers
FFA’s March 2026 story on a Texas chapter describes officers attending Day in the Capital: A Legislative Lead Experience, where they met legislators, learned how the legislative process works and advocated for agricultural education (source).
Presenting both sides
The Agricultural Issues Forum career development event asks teams of three to seven members to research and present both sides of an issue. Event superintendent Stacy Vincent described the goal as providing the facts of both sides. FFA’s October 2025 coverage says one chapter spoke directly with their governor about the topic they studied (source).
Reaching the public online
FFA’s January 2025 advocacy tips come from the Peterson Farm Brothers, a Kansas farm family whose 2012 parody “I’m Farming and I Grow It” reached about five million views in a week according to the article, and whose channel had around 307,000 subscribers. Their tips include posting consistently and picking a platform that fits your content and audience (source).
Plan a First Effort
| Question | Your answer |
|---|---|
| Who is my audience? | Peers, community, officials or students |
| What one message do I want them to keep? | |
| How will I tell whether it landed? | |
| What will I change next time? |
The worksheet is this site’s adaptation of the plan, develop, do and reflect steps.
Questions Readers Ask
Does advocacy mean arguing?
The Ag Issues Forum asks members to present both sides, which suggests that FFA treats informed explanation as part of the job.
Do I need a big platform?
No. Elementary classrooms and peers are named audiences, and the Peterson Farm Brothers piece itself is about consistency.
Honest Limits
The Peterson Farm Brothers are an unusually successful example, and their reach is not a typical outcome. The sources do not evaluate whether FFA advocacy activities change public opinion, and a day at a capitol is one experience, not a policy result.
On this site, Gary Swan worked in agricultural advocacy for his career, Riley Pagett later worked on Capitol Hill and in government relations for National FFA and Taylor McNeel became a staff member on a U.S. House committee. Their bios do not claim that FFA advocacy training led to those roles.