Getting to Know Animal Expert Jack Hanna

I wrote this post about top ten things I learned about Jack Hanna for my blog and thought I’d share here too since the post was enabled by being at the AFBF Annual Meeting. 

There are people who through TV seem to have always been a part of your life but you rarely get to look behind the curtain so to speak, and see what kind of people they are. I have had the chance to meet various people through conventions or pure happenstance and I have to say that animal expert Jack Hanna has probably made the most lasting impression.

Let me explain my encounters with Jack Hanna though before I get to the top 10 things I learned or thought of as I traveled home from AFBF13.

Obviously, I have seen him on TV for years (I am a Letterman fan). But last year in Hawaii he came to the American Farm Bureau meeting and gave talks in the trade show. I caught one of his presentations and thought that was nice.

This year’s Farm Bureau took it to the next level as I heard him do a longer, more personal presentation during a pancake breakfast on Sunday. Throughout the trade show I saw him doing his presentation too (my favorite part was the two-toed sloth – loved the fur and the fact it sleeps all day, afterall, I have a deep love of morning sleep). Finally, I saw he and his wife at the airport.

So now the top 10 which will shed more light on the encounter. Please know that I don’t know for certain Jack Hanna’s story, but these are things I have running through my mind.

1. He has followed his passion. Early in life he realized he had a real passion for animals and he found a way to make that his career. Too few of us are able to figure that out and follow a path that lets us practice our passion routinely. I am blessed to get a paycheck for doing things I’m truly passionate about too. He first cultivated the passion while working for the family’s veterinarian in the Knoxville area, he’s had a pet store and directed the Columbus Zoo.
2. His passion is always evident. If you have ever seen Jack Hanna do a guest spot on a TV show, you have seen the excitement he shows whenever he has animals around him and is especially excitement to share information about them in a way that people remember and love. Love the enthusiasm.
3. Hanna has a deep love of his family. Throughout his stories, he spoke to various things that involved his family. You could tell he’s in a good place. And what’s really cool is that as I came through the airport, his wife Sue seemed the same pointing out small things like where he’s from as she chatted with fellow passengers. I love celebrating the new accomplishments of my board-certified teaching sis, sharing a school project with one nephew or taking a niece for her first farm trip. I hope that as I talk about them, people see the connections!
4. He knows what is truly important and acts on it. One of the stories he told on Sunday that was especially touching was about how he came to be connected to the sponsor of the event, Nationwide Insurance. His connection to the company is much deeper than sponsorship. He said he owed them eternal gratitude as the company is responsible for his daughter’s health after a serious illness since they are major supporters of the Columbus Children’s Hospital.
5. He is generous with his time. Throughout the show, Hanna posed for photos, signed autographs, etc. At the airport, it was the same. He stopped, pulled photos from his bag and signed one to each of the TSAs who wanted one. They were thrilled. And as you can see, he was nice enough to do the same for several of us. I mentioned that my nephew has always loved animals and used to dream of being a zookeeper. He asked his name & wrote out an autograph.
6. When action is required, he gives it his best shot and learns from mistakes. When he was talking about working for a vet as a teenager, he told the story of his being the only person there as a cow had trouble calving. And while he was on the phone with the vet finding out what needed to be done, it became clear that he’d have to do it. Pulling a calf is hard (so I hear and this AgProud post explains why calving season is tough) and he hadn’t done it. He listened to the directions & worried about having to do it but went ahead. While he made a mistake (he said he ended up pulling the back legs instead of the front legs), it all turned out okay.
7. There is a genuineness with he and his wife. I guess I’ve sort of pointed to this already in part, but, I love that the Hannas were really talking with whoever they were with.  As he talked to some TSAs, she chatted with another passenger who was sure his daughters would be pumped about the run-in. She then complimented me on my necklace — yep, it is a cotton boll piece I bought at Beltwide.  When I mentioned I worked for Monsanto, he remarked he had noticed us at the show.
8. He is willing to put his time toward things that are important. He thinks animal conservation is important too and its obvious that he’s done incredible amounts of work to raise the profile Sunday’s breakfast was to support agriculture education programs like My American Farm.
9. He knows there is middle ground in topics that sometimes get polarized. It was interesting to me that he brought up the issues happening now with wolves. He says wolves are problems on farms & ranches, mainly because people keep encroaching on their habitats with suburbanization. But he also understands that when wolves begin to attack humans, control efforts will get put into place. He wants to do what is fair and right.
10. Schedules are different for a lot of city folks and farmers. One of the very first things he told us has stuck with me. He mentioned Saturday evening as he left for Nashville that he had a 7 a.m. breakfast talk to give and the guy said asked who in the world would come to hear a speaker that early. Hanna enjoyed pointing out that farmers are up early all the time — they have to put in long days to feed all of us! So true.

I really encourage you to follow him on TV and social media. You can find Jack Hanna on:

• TV through Into the Wild and Wild Countdown on ABC Saturdays
• Twitter @JungleJackHanna
• website/blog JackHanna.com
• Facebook Jungle Jack Hanna 
• Pinterest Jungle Jack Hanna
• And of course he’s on Letterman now and then!

Janice AKA JPLovesCotton is Janice Person, a city girl who loves cotton and biotechnology. Her work at Monsanto includes blogging and social media outreach. A colorful adventure is her personal blog. Follow her on Twitter (@JPLovesCotton). .

A Little Slice of History

This morning, my husband and I took time out of our jam-packed schedule to stop and have a few minutes of our morning archived for future generations.

What am I talking about?

We were given the opportunity to have a 40 minute interview recorded through Story Corps, and it will be archived in the Library of Congress. Talk about an amazing opportunity.

The only issue we had? Apparently if you take a cell phone and cover it in foam, my normally talkative husband clams up. That’s right, Mr. Social seemed to have an issue with keeping a conversation going with me. But never fear, the wonderful woman assisting us jumped in at the right moments, helping him open up and tell even more wonderful stories.

The best part of all was knowing that this information will be recorded for all of posterity, allowing our children, our grandchildren and even their grandchildren the opportunity to hear our thoughts, memories and plans for the future. It’s not every day that you get an opportunity like that, and we have Farm Bureau to thank for it.

If you ever have an opportunity to tell your story, be sure to do it. Not just your plans for the future, but where you’ve been, how you made it to where you are—including the trials and tribulations.

Amazing moments in amazing places—it’s the Farm Bureau way.

wagfarms is Val Wagner, a North Dakota farmer and rancher. The Wag’n Tales blog features stories from this mom of four who loves farm life and invites readers to come along for the ride. Follow Val on Twitter (@wagfarms) and find her on Facebook. She is a member of the North Dakota Farm Bureau’s Promotion & Education Committee.

The Social Part of Media

This evening I was fortunate enough to be able to take part in an amazing reception that was sponsored by Monsanto in cooperation with RFD-TV to give thanks to an amazing group of people…the media.

It was a great opportunity to meet some truly wonderful people that work so hard to help us get our stories out there. But I did catch a few of them having fun, like…

Willie Vought and Frank Holdenmyer of Farm Progress Companies visit with Janice Person of Monsanto.

JP started off in her street clothes at the RFD-TV studio…

Then broke out her inner Marty Stuart!

There were some Rock Stars with dressing rooms!

And one of the coolest pumpkins I’ve ever seen!

And even I got the chance to feel a little star treatment!

Thank you to all who made it possible!

wagfarms is Val Wagner, a North Dakota farmer and rancher. The Wag’n Tales blog features stories from this mom of four who loves farm life and invites readers to come along for the ride. Follow Val on Twitter (@wagfarms) and find her on Facebook. She is a member of the North Dakota Farm Bureau’s Promotion & Education Committee.

Lessons Learned Through Flapjacks

Things I’ve learned from Jack Hanna, the entertainer at this morning’s Foundation Flapjack Fundraiser:

- Not all penguins need cold weather

I learned from Jack Hanna that not all penguins need cold weather. In fact, some penguins wouldn’t make it in my state, North Dakota!

- Don’t order certain coffees from Starbucks

- A sloth doesn’t move during the day…which reminds me of a few people I know!

 

This morning’s Flapjack Fundraiser was an amazing opportunity to see all the great things the Foundation has done the last year, meet a few new people and share a few early morning laughs. What a great start to the day!

 

wagfarms is Val Wagner, a North Dakota farmer and rancher. The Wag’n Tales blog features stories from this mom of four who loves farm life and invites readers to come along for the ride. Follow Val on Twitter (@wagfarms) and find her on Facebook. She is a member of the North Dakota Farm Bureau’s Promotion & Education Committee.

Farm Bureau Members Get to See Hawaiian Agriculture

Monsanto’s Kunia research station

Before the Farm Bureau’s Annual Meeting gets underway, many of the farmers who have traveled to Hawaii are taking time to visit farms on Oahu. Friday I was with a group of farmers and Farm Bureau staff from Indiana, Iowa, Texas and Missouri who had a chance to learn about the role Hawaii plays in corn seed research that ultimately delivers products to their mainland farms as well as an innovative program to help small farms have some increased stability.

The group toured Monsanto Company’s Kunia research farm, where Fred Perlak, who leads technology & business in Hawaii, provided an overview of the area and the farm.

• There are three major challenges to farming in Hawaii which farmers and companies all have to deal with.
  • Water – In Hawaiian the word “wai” means water “wai wai” is wealth so its clear that water is a critical piece of the ag puzzle. Farms in this area receive water through a state run irrigation system that brings water from the other side of the island. Monsanto uses drip tape to use all the water, recycle the drip tape, etc to be the best possible steward of the precious resource. This video on YouTube shows some of the innovative water collection that has been used in Hawaii.
  • Land — Hawaii with the volcanic activity frequently has poor soils. This site has red dirt with high iron levels which can cause issues by tying up fertilizer. To overcome this, the site puts fertilizer through irrigation system to make use of all, avoid leaching, in the field every day, treating each 10 ft of row. With the pitch of the land, this site has also terraced the land, created collection pools to recover top soil despite the heavy rainfall the area receives. 
  • Labor — Many farms in Hawaii are very small farms of a couple of acres and all work is done by the farmer and his family. A lot of workers from the Philippines, very labor intensive, nurturing local staff, scholarships, Internships, FFA, etc, now recruiting like high school athletes destined for college
• It is expensive to be active in Hawaiian agriculture so expectations are very high.
• There used to be sugar and pineapple on this land. It had been fallow three years before it was purchased in 2007.
• Seed corn production is the biggest segment of agriculture in Hawaii. There are about 2,000 seed employees for the various companies. Monsanto’s efforts are in Oahu, Maui and Molokai. Several other companies also do seed corn research here as crops can be planted throughout the year.
• This site is focused on building new varieties corn and soybeans working with breeding programs in the U.S.
• The Kunia team of approximately 400 people does about 5 million hand crosses here and the crew on Maui does approximately 6 million a year so it is an intense labor process.
  

  Dean Okimoto & Wendy Gady explain Hawaii Ag Foundation’s Kunia Ag Park

The tour also had a chance to hear from Dean Okimoto, a local farmer who’s president of Hawaii Farm Bureau and is among the leadership of the Hawaii Ag Foundation. Dean and one of the people working with Kunia Ag Park, Wendy Gady, took time to talk to us about a new program to support small farms. (If you missed the previous video post on Dean you should take a couple of minutes to watch it.) Some of the things you should know about small farms and the Kunia Ag Park include:

• Many small acreage farmers in Hawaii have month-to-month leases which could result in a loss of their ability to farm with just a month’s notice when the field is sold or the owner chooses to do something else with the land. The Ag Park is providing people one year leases that dramatically increase the stability of farming.
• Land that is provided to farmers frequently requires major improvements like removal of trees, etc. In the Ag Park, the major work is done as well as some of the other pieces like preliminary ground work.
  

  products from small farms at Hawaii Ag Foundation’s Kunia Ag Park

• Land prices are higher in Hawaii than mainland farmers can imagine so getting started as a farmer is unbelieveably tough. However, the Ag Park offers reasonable leases and year-round production for the fresh market and farmers markets offer the potential for good profits.
• The range of products includes white beets, greens, apple bananas, star fruit, peanuts, a couple of types of squash, eggplants and other fresh fruits and vegetables. Most of the farmers currently on the Ag Park participate in farmers’ markets.
• The park is providing farmers a way to grow. For instance, Gady showed a video where a farming couple talked about expanding from 2 acres to 11 acres at the new location. The expansion could provide additional jobs in agriculture.

Tours also went to other farms on Oahu and other islands. We hope Farm Bureau members will continue passing along what they learned to others.

I hope you enjoy the slide show of the morning!

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JPLovesCotton is Janice Person, a city girl who loves cotton and biotechnology. Her work in public affairs for Monsanto includes blogging and social media outreach. A colorful adventure is her personal blog. Follow her on Twitter (@JPLovesCotton).