Cotton Australia is delighted to announce the Cotton Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champions for 2013

They are

Martin Murray (Toowoomba/Armidale)

You can read Martin’s blog here

Kirsty McCormack (Inverell)

You can read Kirsty’s blog here

Ben Egan (Warren)

You can read Ben’s blog here

Elizabeth Lobsley (Toowoomba).

You can read Liz’s blog here

Cotton Australia is very excited by the remarkable calibre of the applicants this year – a real testament to the quality of young people who are swelling the ranks of the cotton industry. We are lucky this year to have a range of career paths (gap year, city to the country, career changers, college and university) and occupations (farmer, agronomist, university students) amongst the YFCs all equally inspired to light a flame for agriculture in the hearts and minds of primary and school students across three States.

For Cotton Australia, the YFC program is an important vehicle for building the capacity of young people within the industry to speak to audiences who may be disengaged or apathetic about agriculture. They bring a fresh voice, a human face and an inspiring story that make young people sit up and think twice about stereotypes and misconceptions. The YFCs, as young people themselves are in a unique position to relate to students not much younger than they are.

The Young Farming Champion program will engage, train, mentor and support these four Young Farming Champions to go into schools who are participating in  the Art4Agriculture Archibull Prize program.

The champions will engage with the students, share stories about farmers and farming, build understanding and work together to understand the challenges facing primary industries. They will be provided with training to present and deliver messages on behalf of industry to non-farmer teenage audiences. We hope to see the program increase both the confidence and leadership skills of the participants with the capacity to take a more active role on behalf of industry to achieve industry goals.

Cotton Australia would also like to congratulate Elizabeth Stott (Gogeldrie) on her selection to participate in the highly prestigious Australian Rural Leadership Program this year funded by the CRDC. Elizabeth is an outstanding ARLP candidate and has been a passionate contributor to community activity which has engendered respect and acceptance of the industry in the local community cotton and will no doubt use the ARLP program to increase her capacity to continue this important work in the future.