By Krystil Smit, Editor

Washington, D.C., became a classroom for 28 members of the South Dakota Ag and Rural Leadership class in November when the group traveled there for their national seminar, part of the SDARL class curriculum.

SDARL class II met with representatives from the National Restaurant Association, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Retailers Association, Environmental Working Group, American Meat Institute and the embassies of the Netherlands and Great Britain. They also met with South Dakota's senators, visited an elementary school and the members went on several small group meetings. In all, the class spent a week both learning and teaching agriculture while in Washington, D.C.

Chris Wirt, SDARL class member from Parker, S.D., said country-of-origin meat labeling was a hot topic while in Washington and they heard from people on both sides of the debate.

"Debra White from the Food Marketing Institute stood out for me," said Wirt. "She was talking about the grocery store side and as consumers, we pick up our fruits and vegetables, whatever, and just assume it's safe. But whether it's a strawberry or that beef animal, from the time it enters that food chain, it has to be traced absolutely every step of the way. Each time that it goes another step, it becomes more of a possibility that it will get lost.

"Her opinion (of COOL) was if we would have had a better opportunity for discussion before the law was written, we could have handled the issue much more easily," said Wirt.

Class members were encouraged by John Blanchfield, director of the American Bankers Association, to begin thinking ahead to the next farm bill.

"When John Blanchfield spoke to us, he talked about the farm bill that will be coming up a few years down the road," said Wirt. "He said we as farmers and ag people need to have better answers - why we have subsidies. Just because we deserve it is not an answer. We need to get through to consumers that we have a safe and reliable product."

While class members were there to learn from the many industry and government representatives addressing their group, they also were encouraged to offer their own opinions and ideas.

"What I came away with was that regardless of what position we may have, who we are, our voice is important in Washington. We need to let those people know, whether it's our lawmakers, our groups that we're involved with, what we believe is the right thing to do," said Wirt. "If you have enough individuals with the same thought that lets their voices be known, it starts multiplying and it does make an impact."

According to Wirt, that has been the overall lesson she's learned as a member of the SDARL class over the past year-and-a-half.

"What I have gained as far as personal confidence has been an enormous asset. The things that I have got to go learn about and see I never could have done on my own. And to hear two different sides of an issue and then being able to sort it through in my mind and decide what I think is right has just been something you cannot put a value on.

"And the people in my class, it doesn't matter if you're the banker or the rancher or who you are, regardless of what area of agriculture, you come together as a unit and you learn and you have resources available to you in that group that you never would have had before," said Wirt.

Class II of the SDARL program will culminate in an international seminar in April during which the class will spend four days in the Netherlands, four days in Belgium and a week in England. On the tour, the group will learn about Holland's flower export market, parts of the country which have been reclaimed from the sea and they will visit a robotic milking parlor.

The SDARL program is encouraging new applicants for the SDARL Class III. The applications will be available Jan. 1, 2004 via the Web site, http://sdarl.sdstate.org/. Applications will be due on March 15, 2004. Class III will begin in November 2004 and finish in April 2006. See the Web site for more details or contact Dan Gee, SDARL executive director, Box 2170, SDSU, Brookings, SD 57007; telephone: (605) 688-5440

or e-mail: Dan_Gee@sdstate.edu.