4-H Capitol Experience Sparks Ingham County Teens Interest in Civic Engagement

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InghamCounty
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April 2009

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4-H Capitol Experience sparks Ingham County teens’ interest in civic engagement

Ingham County 4-H membersDakota Riehl of Onondaga and Shelby Thelen of Williamston were among nearly 100 Michigan high school students who got a glimpse of how Michigan’s legislative process works during the 4-H Capitol Experience conference in Lansingthis past March.

While interacting with legislators, state agency staff members and lobbyists, the teens learned how they can become politically engaged and influence policy issues.

Both participants made plans at the conclusion of the conference to encourage students at their schools to become civically engaged. Thelen plans to let her friends and classmates know how much their opinions matter, which was a theme stressed by all of the speakers during the event.

Thelen felt that the best part of the conference was the enthusiasm of the teen participants.

“Everyone wanted to be there,” she said.“It was so refreshing!”

The teens continued discussing issues and learning with each other even after the planned activities were finished each day. After the conference, Thelan told her mother that she loved meeting with the representatives and is thinking about politics as an occupation.

As a result of attending Capitol Experience, Riehl has plans to become more involved with the choices that are made in her school. She also intends to increase her awareness and engagement with state and national politics, starting with discussing the current issues with her family.

“Attending this program has opened my eyes to all the possibilities,” she said.Riehl is planning to pursue an intern position with a lobbyist because of this conference.

Riehl spoke to her mother after the event about her frustration with people not being open-minded during the discussion on education for the mock bill-writing session.

After talking with her mother about the discussion and the many points of view gained throughout the conference, she told her mother that she finally understood why there should be a separation of church and state.

Betty Jo Nash, 4-H Extension educator

What difference does a dime make?

Corn, soybeans, and other grain crops generate more than $50 million (gross) per year in Ingham County.

Continued

A dime’sdifference—continued

Why would farmers be excited about a dime? Think about it this way. A full-time farmer has 1,500 acres and generates 137,000 bushels of grain. If he can improve his marketing strategy enough to increase the average sale price by a dime per bushel, it would increase his net income by $13,700 per year.

For many farmers, grain marketing was challenging in 2008, and many are chronically frustrated from being “out-guessed” by the market. This frustration has turned into a serious economic problem, due to rising land rental, fertilizer and other input costs.

In March, Ingham County MSU Extension hosted Ed Usset, a University of Minnesota grain marketing specialist, who presented a program called, “Winning the Game: Launch and Land Your Pre-Harvest Marketing Plan.” Usset is known for his success in teaching farmers to develop simple, executable grain marketing plans.

In the course of the program, Usset demonstrated the importance of keeping production costs low, knowing the actual per-bushel cost of production, making wise investments in crop insurance, having a data-based plan that will reduce impulsive marketing decisions, and understanding normal seasonal commodity price trends.

Those farmers who completed an evaluation following the program indicated that they plan to:

write a pre-harvest marketing plan (81 percent)
take more time to accurately determine production costs (44 percent)
establish target prices for each commodity that they sell(55 percent)
establish target dates for selling (59 percent)

Of the 27 farmers who attended the program, 10 felt able to estimate the economic impact of the program on their farming operation; the average was nearly $12,000 per year.

How important is this for InghamCounty? In addition to enhancing the sustainability of these farms and contributing to the greater economy, such an increase in income contributes to the survival of the county’s 50 agriculture-related businesses.

Ingham County MSU Extension educator Dan Hudson remains focused on using objective, research-based information to help farmers identify key areas in production and marketing where they can reduce their costs or otherwise improve the performance of their businesses during these hard times.

Dan Hudson, Agricultural educator

Youth Voices: Changing public policy

The Community Coalition for Youth (CCY), which celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2009, is a collaborative effort between Ingham County and the City of Lansing that focuses a number of community-based initiatives aimed atpreventing youth violence and delinquency.

CCY partners include public and non-profit agencies like MSU Extension, community and neighborhood organizations, schools, businesses, parents, youths and faith-based organizations.

The first event organized by the CCY 15th anniversary steering committee was “Youth Voices: Changing Public Policy,” which took place on April 6 in partnership with:

Michigan's Children
LansingCommunityCollegeHigh School Diploma Completion Initiative
InghamCounty Youth Commission
Peckham
Michigan State University--University Outreach & Engagement
One Love Global

Youth Voices gave young people the opportunity to present their views to policy leaders on whythey believe young people drop out of school and what leaders can do to better support them.
When the students were asked what they enjoyed most about the program, they said things like, “The people’s speeches,” and “It was a very interactive experience; I felt free to speak my opinion.”
Policy makers said,“The program reinforces the need

for youth voice,”“These programs need to happen more regularly,” and “Nothing beats personal stories.”

Angela Waters Austin, CCY coordinator