Most of the high-school teens selling at today’s livestock auction at the Maricopa County Fair are members of the National FFA Organization. But it doesn’t mean they’re all future farmers.
Sarah Carter, a senior at Dobson High School in Mesa and president of her school’s FFA club, hopes to use profits from selling a goat she raised to help pay for college. She plans to be a veterinarian.
Students who take part in FFA are a holdover from an era when Future Farmers of America clubs were a bigger part of life in schools around the nation. However, fewer clubs today raise livestock. Instead, the group has evolved to focus more on biotechnology and other areas of science.