More than 250 Future Farmers of America (FFA) members gathered on Oʻahu to participate in the annual State Convention.
FFA is the largest career-oriented student organization in the country. Members set out to learn about agriculture through classroom and hands-on experiences.
About 22 high schools and one intermediate school in Hawaiʻi have an FFA chapter. The number of schools with FFA has doubled in the last five years.
"Agriculture, as everyone should know, is a very integral part into our lives of course. It's everywhere — into our pencils, into the clothes we wear. It's connected to everything," said Jhanella Gerardo, the FFA Hawaiʻi president of Waipahu High School.
Students from Hawaiʻi, Maui, Molokaʻi, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi gather once a year to compete in various leadership and agricultural tournaments. This year, they participated in competitions including public speaking, corsage making and agricultural science.
"The generation, our youth, is going to be the ones that are going to be in these jobs and the positions that are going to be leading the world, leading our legislators, it’s going to be our future engineers and such," Gerardo continued.
"And so it's very important that they know that agriculture is still an important factor that they should be taking care of," she said.
Notable members of the community, including Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and state lawmakers, connected with FFA students during the convention.
"For the state of Hawaiʻi, FFA means so much more than what you learn. It is the resurgence of having sustainability in our systems of food, food security, sustainability and environment," Luke said.
