Summer Program for Native American Youth in Food and Agriculture Begins This Week

Forty-four high school and college students arrived at the University of Arkansas School of Law this Sunday for the inaugural Summer Leadership Summit: Native Youth in Agriculture. The students, who represent the next generation of Indian Country’s food and agriculture leaders, hail from 13 states from as far away as Oregon and Hawaii, and represent 21 tribes.

The week-long program includes classes, lectures, field trips and hands-on training in risk management, finance and business, legal issues and marketing. University of Arkansas professors, professionals in the food and agriculture sector and tribal leaders will teach the courses. Highlights include presentations by Mike Vayda, dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, and Stacy Leeds, dean of the School of Law, and visits to the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market, the Discovery Center Food Processing and Food Development Center at Tyson Foods world headquarters and the Regional Distribution Center of Walmart and Sam’s Club world headquarters.

The summit is sponsored by the School of Law and the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative in partnership with the Intertribal Agriculture Council, FFA (formerly the Future Farmers of America) and the Farm Credit Council. The program is supported by grants from the Farm Credit Council and the Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A full agenda for the week is available as a PDF download.

For more information, or to support the Leadership Program, please contact Janie Hipp at jhipp@uark.edu.