What do customers of vegetable transplants sold to commercial farms from Salinas, Calif., to Yuma, Ariz., have in common with the California FFA? Earlier this year the California FFA honored Emma Woods of Gustine High School as the state Star Farmer for her project that grew and sold vegetable transplants commercially from her family's operation, Woods Transplant Services, near Santa Nella.
Woods is now a freshman at Modesto Junior College, where she plans to study agriculture business. Her plan: return to the family business that her father, Mark Woods, currently operates. Emma's project began her freshman year at Gustine High School after her ag teacher, Matt Baffunno, encouraged her to enter a project competition.
"As I went on and did this my sophomore, junior, and senior years, he thought it was good for me to run for Star Farmer because he thought that I had a big enough project and had spent all this time and effort with it," she said.
Baffunno's encouragement and intuition paid off as Woods won the Star Farmer award at statewide FFA competition. Each year four FFA members are honored with State Star Awards for outstanding accomplishments in FFA and agricultural education by the California FFA.
Read more at farmprogress.com