Oregon FFA Association

It's January 16th, 2010. I have just come back from a place called the People's Republic of China. Never in my life would I have imagined that I would have the opportunity to visit China. A communist country were few citizens leave and have the opportunity to come back. With over 1 billion people the need for agriculture is growing. Yet, the average farmer in China only farms on 1/3 of an acre. Imagine that!

Are you aware of how many people the average farmer in America can feed? It's about 144. In China it takes 6 farmers to feed one person. Yet over 70% of the population are farmers were only 3% of the American population are.

I was asked; since everything is already made in China wouldn't you think they were technogically advanced? Well that would make sense but that isn't how it works. A laptop costs anywhere from $400-$1200. The average farmer at one the greenhouses we visited made 5,550 RMB a year. Divide that by 6.7 and you would get what that equals in US Dollars. Now would you think they have the income to be technogically advanced?

Everywhere we went you could see poverty. China holds the second largest number of millionaires in the world just below the U.S. You just don't notice it because there is 6 million more that are poor.

Appreciate where you are from. Appreciate the FFA. Because once you turn around see how lucky you are, life might have already passed by.