Chris Wilson, new president of American Agri-Women

Chris Wilson: Rising to defend agriculture through American Agri-Women

By Paula Glover
A tour of Ron and Chris Wilson’s farm south of Manhattan includes Nigerian dwarf and Toggenburg goats, llamas, Shropshire sheep, Pony of the Americas, Paint, and quarter horses, chickens, a couple of rabbits. Some are 4-H projects, but all are part of the couple’s agri-tourism business. On the more than 550 acres, the family also farms pumpkins and small vegetables, corn, hay, soybeans, wheat and grain sorghum, along with raising cattle.
When Chris Wilson speaks about the future of agriculture as the new president of American Agri-Women, she speaks from her lifetime in farming, the current tourism and farming business, and preparing for the future in agriculture for her four children.
Wilson has been a member of American Agri-Women since 1978, when she joined after graduating from college in Illinois. Following a stint with the USDA in Washington D.C., she and her husband now live in Kansas, where Ron was reared. She began a two-year term as president in 2009, which will end at the annual convention, to be held in Wichita in 2011. She has also served as president of the Kansas Agri-Women organization.
There are many challenges facing agriculture and women in ag, Wilson said. To help women rise to the challenge, American Agri-Women is using social media such as twitter and Facebook, along with developing a television show. The show, which will air in May on Direct and Dish networks and be available to PBS stations is part of a grant from the USDA to outreach to farm and ranch women. The shows will also be available on the group’s website, www.americanagriwomen.org. The episodes will focus on risk management, farm programs, and topics like how to market grain. The programs will also include a visit to a farm.
Wilson said there are many issues of concern to American Agri-Women. The return of the estate tax will adversely impact families trying to maintain an inter-generational family farm, she said. One of the most pressing needs is to bring the truth of animal agriculture to the general public in response to attacks with “documentaries” such as “Food Inc.” and attacks from groups such as the Humane Society of the United States.
“We need to respond with the facts,” she said. “We need to continue to increase yields in order to feed the world, and do it with the right soil and water conservation measures.” The group’s web site features responses to “Food Inc.” and gives fact sheets on the importance of American agriculture.
“The stakes have never been higher in the challenges to our industry,” she said. “The messages to the public from media portray an agriculture that is not made up of family farms, but of U.S. Food being produced in a factory, where workers and animals are abused by ‘big agribusiness’,” she said.
“Nothing could be further from the truth, as 96 percent of all U.S farms are still family farms, and they produce 82 percent of our food.”
Wilson recalled talking to a friend in the same 4-H club with her children, who was troubled by the allegations in “Food, Inc.”
“These negative images are reaching our friends and family members,” she said. “There are great opportunities to tell the true story of agriculture in our local communities.”
Other issues of concern of the group include health care for long term security and retirement. Also a concern is agriculture labor, as one in six ag laborers are foreign-born and in some states there are not enough laborers. In addition, the group has a program called American Grown Goodness designed to provide a way for growers, processors and marketers to identify their American grown products. A logo identifies the product as American grown.
“We are also looking to bring in the next generation of women into the group,” Wilson said. American Agri-Women has been a group focused on legislation and national issues. But in addition, younger women seek networking and mentoring and need opportunities to develop leadership skills, she said.
Wilson comes from a farm family in Illinois, where her father still manages the family farm. As with many farm families, both she and her husband have off-farm jobs in addition to the agri-tourism and farming. During the legislative session, Chris lobbies the state legislature on agricultural issues. Ron works for Kansas State University in the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development. He’s also a cowboy poet, known as the Poet Lariat.
The couple has four children. Joanna, 18, is planning on attending K-State in the fall, majoring in animal science, hoping to become a veterinarian. They also have 12-year-old triplets – Stephen, James and Elizabeth, all active in 4-H.
The agri-tourism business evolved naturally, and Chris Wilson said she was initially a little surprised at the number of people who would be interested in visits to the farm. The farm, the Lazy-T west of Zeandale, now hosts such diverse groups as pre-school classes from Manhattan, a camping group from the Boy Scouts, to weekend visitors or a corporate picnic. They hold a spring roundup, fall festival and tours of the original barn on the site, built in the 1860s and now on the National Historic Register. They offer chuck wagon meals, hayrack rides, barrel train rides for the kids, and cowboy poetry.
“I have learned so much as a member of American Agri-Women through our conventions in different states,” Wilson said. “I’m glad to be able to serve as their new president.”

Appeared in Grass and Grain