FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AgriCorps Announces Launch

Non-profit organization will bring agricultural education to developing countries

Throckmorton, Texas (October 15, 2013) – Stemming from a passion for agriculture and leadership, a Texas rancher has created a worldwide non-profit organization.  Trent McKnight, former national FFA president in 2000, announced last week the beginning of AgriCorps, an organization focused on reducing hunger and poverty in developing countries through agricultural education.

“AgriCorps will be a Peace Corps type organization that takes American college graduates of agriculture and places them in the developing world to teach agricultural education in primary and secondary schools,” said McKnight, a graduate of Oklahoma State University and The London School of Economics. “The knowledge that American graduates of agriculture possess is invaluable to these still largely agrarian societies as they seek to learn better, more efficient agricultural practices.”

Volunteers will equip students with agriculture and life skills needed to become healthy, independent farmers and critical thinking citizens by using the three components of the American agricultural education model:  classroom instruction, individual entrepreneurship experience, and leadership development.  Volunteers must have practical farm skills and have a bachelor’s degree in agriculture.

Dwight Armstrong, CEO of The National FFA Organization, will serve as a founding director of the AgriCorps board.  “AgriCorps is bringing together the best of agricultural education, FFA and 4-H to meet the needs in developing countries across the globe for the next generation of agriculturalists,” Armstrong said.

Joining Armstrong on the board is Don Floyd, President and CEO of the National 4-H Council.  “Seventy percent of people living in extreme poverty are rural and agrarian.  This is a challenge,” said Floyd.  “In 4-H we know that the youth solution is the best way to resolve these challenges.  AgriCorps will take talented young leaders to the places where the challenges are the greatest, and the solutions will come quickly.”

The organization has begun to accept names for interested volunteers.  To learn more visit agricorps.org or contact McKnight at trent.mcknight@agricorps.org