Local UA student one of 20 nationwide at ag conference

Miguel Aceves, an agriculture student at the University of Arizona-Yuma, was selected to attend the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent 2013 Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington, Va.

Aceves was one of 20 university juniors and seniors nationwide who were chosen based on their essays, “Agriculture as a Career,” and on a recommendations from their deans.

In his essay, Aceves wrote, “I'm studying agriculture because I believe it to be America's backbone ... It is a very secure industry which only continues to grow every year. After graduation I plan on working as a crop consultant. I want to be able to walk into a field, assess any deficiencies or issues, make an exact diagnosis of the problems, and offer the producer sustainable solutions for improvement. The need for agriculture improvements continues to grow every passing day and I want to help contribute with feeding the world.”

As a senior at UA-Yuma pursuing a bachelor's degree in sustainable plant systems with an agronomy option, Aceves said the agricultural conference was very much up his alley.

“It was an honor to go to the forum. I got to see a lot of the policy making that goes into agricultural laws and learn about the agriculture economic profits of 2012 and what's predicted for 2013.”

He said that he especially enjoyed Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and chief economist Joseph Glauber's presentations.

“They both kind of talked about issues surrounding crop production and feeding the growing populations ... The outlook looks good, it's just going to be a challenge with technology growing and advancing where we're able to do more with less.”

Aceves said it was great to hear from agricultural experts at a national level at the forum versus just at the local level, which he is more accustomed to.

The forum titled “Managing Risk in the 21st Century” was held Feb. 21-22.

USDA stated that the finalists for the essay competition include students from land-grant, Hispanic-serving institutions and American Association of State Colleges of Agriculture and Renewable Resources institutions who are the recipients of corporate and USDA sponsorships that promote the education of aspiring agriculturalists.

Visit www.usda.gov/oce/forum for more information about the event.