Anyone who talks to Judi Whitson for more than five minutes has a good chance of hearing her elevator pitch.
“I teach third graders to legislators,” Whitson says.
She greets visitors at her office with a hug or sunny smile, a technique she credits with her rise to the top. Today, she is the executive director of the Hillsborough County Farm Bureau Federation. The main focus of her job is educating the public about agriculture.
“Most kids don’t know where their food comes from,” Whitson says. “Some legislators don’t get it either. They put in guidelines, but they don’t know how it works.”
It’s her job to teach them.
A SEARCH FOR PASSION
Every day when Whitson was in high school, she would come home to watch “The Mike Douglas Show,” a daytime talk show that brought prominent guests on to discuss their inspirations. While the program has run its length, Whitson remembers it as her first dose of ambition.
“I would sit there and watch thinking, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be passionate about something like those people,’” Whitson says.
Born in Brooksville, but raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Whitson grew up listening to her family talk about the orange groves they owned. Little did she know she would eventually return to her earthy roots.
She didn’t take the traditional route to her agricultural career. Whitson worked in fields such as accounting, public relations, banking and real estate before she was offered the job as executive director.
“I didn’t know anything about strawberries,” Whitson says. “One of the growers took me out to the field and showed me how to lay plastic.”
She gained her current position 25 years ago because of the heavy accounting background and communication skills, yet she didn’t know how much she would teach the community.
“I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,” Whitson says.
A NEW APPROACH
A quarter of a decade ago, before Whitson accepted the job at the Farm Bureau, many people in areas of Hillsborough County knew very little about where their food came from.
Whitson recognized the slipping familiarity, and she looked for ways to teach the public beyond posters and flyers.
“The old way of doing things is saying, ‘This is what I need to do and bygone it, I’ll do it,’” Whitson said. “If I need to know something or tell someone something I pick up the phone and call them.”
In her office, Whitson has a thick binder slung under a chair in her office.
“When I started, they gave me that book,” she says. “We didn’t have any programming, so I started calling people and making contacts.”
For 30 years, the Hillsborough County school system used to only have the Ag in the Classroom platform, an academic program that taught children the importance of agriculture from behind their desks. Whitson had been a part of the program since it started, but she wanted to teach on a larger scale. The Ag in the Classroom program happened only during the state fair.
She also wanted to do more interactive teaching.
“It was always not how could we do it, but why can we not do it,” Whitson says.
In 1994, Whitson helped grow the AgVentures program, an annual, hands-on field trip that takes third graders to stations around the county and teaches them the reality of agriculture.
“When the kids pick a fake orange off our orange trees and then see the real juice, it’s like an ‘oh’ moment for them,” Whitson said.
With 7,200 third graders attending the AgVentures event a year and about 13,000 total students, the program only reaches half of the population. She is determined to expand it further and put out as much information on agribusiness as possible.
Whitson has also started the Ag-Abilities program, a program that helps special needs students participate in FFA events.
“The ag industry is so giving,” Whitson says.
Because of her work, she received the 2015 Salute to Ag award for Ag Educator of the Year from the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce.
“Those kids are our future voters,” Whitson says. “If they don’t understand and have an appreciation of agriculture then how will we feed a nation?”
Tips for success?
• Focus.
• You have to think outside of the box.
• Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help.
About Judi
Who is your hero?
My daughter. She’s a social worker for children. She’s a pretty amazing person.
Use three words to describe yourself?
Passionate, loyal and funny.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
It depends on what day it is. I’m definitely a morning person because I get more stuff done. I wake up at 6 a.m. and go to bed around 11 p.m.
What is the weirdest food you’ve tried?
Turtle soup.
What message would you put in a fortune cookie?
Disappointments are just God’s way of saying, “I’ve got something better.” Be patient, live life and have faith. Yes, I have it on Pinterest.
— Abby Baker