The Sparks Florist Design Center was a busy place today as Future Farmers of America held their annual competitions there for Floraculture. You see Agriculture Industry of today is different than most of us think. It still includes livestock and dairies and farming. But it also includes the business of farming, and water quality. It includes how soils are affected by climate change, distribution chains, fish as crops and floraculture.
And the floraculture students were the ones competing today.Â
"Each team will find an order on your table that you will fill as a professional florist," the organizer said as he started the clock giving the teams 40 minutes to complete the task.Â
"We can use the carnations as the focal flower," one team leader said. "And we'll use the chrysanthemums as filler."
And they were off. But the creation was the beginning.Â
"We have given them the cost of the flowers and the labor and they will have to decide how to split the resources into what they need and then what to charge as a retail price for each arrangement," said Jessica Fagundes who is with the Department of Agriculture's Ag-Ed in Nevada.
"We have learned the science of flowers and now we're learning the business of it all. That does take math and science and even engineering to cut the flowers at the right angle to keep them alive and fresh," said Brook Higbee of Alamo, Nevada.Â
"Leadership is a big part of this," added National Vice President of FAA National, Abbey Gretsch who's here for this week's convention. "They learn leadership and they learn that these days Ag is much more than cows and sows and plows. For many of these students Ag will be their future."
