Artwork by
Dennis Murphy

For the students, by the students

Loos Makes Two Student Organizations Think
By Tyne Morgan, Corner Post staff

Trent Loos made Collegiate Farm Bureau and Collegiate Farmer’s Union members question their motives during his stay at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“My purpose is to make a difference and truly make people think in ways they haven’t thought before,” said Loos.

Loos succeeded with this goal while visiting Mizzou, when he participated as Block and Bridle’s guest speaker on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005. During the day, he participated in a question and answer session with the two agricultural organizations.

Loos began by asking the two organizations what their purpose was. In the beginning, both groups thought they stood for different things, but Loos made them realize they were very similar with the same common goals.

“Division within our own industry is a big problem,” said Loos. “We can’t send mixed signals.”

Loos brought up this controversy to make the members realize this is a problem, even within the School of Agriculture. Although they are two different organizations, Loos felt if they had one large organization and at the end of the day delivered the same message, the student’s could have a larger impact. This is a message that Loos has been trying to make everyone involved in the agricultural industry understand.

Loos feels that when people who have a common goal to put agriculture in a positive light, they send two different messages, and then they are back to where they started. One way he suggested that the two organizations help solve this problem and not contribute to it was to find an issue the two groups feel strongly about and run with it. The organizations questioned Loos about their ability to do this.

“How do we make them change when people are so dead set in their ways, but more importantly, how do we do this as a college student?” said Nicole Busdieker, a member of Collegiate Farm Bureau.

Loos provided a simple solution to their concern. He stressed the importance of being heard. He encouraged members to become an advocate and a voice for agriculture. To gather facts to convince people that they needed to start thinking about issues that the organizations feel are important in the agriculture industry.

Loos spoke that evening at Monsanto Auditorium at 7 p.m. to the School of Agriculture’s student body.

Back to archives