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Florida 4-H Development Team, UGA win Advocacy in Agriculture competition
Posted on Oct 22, 2026 at 16:44 PM
The Florida 4-H/IFAS Development Team and the University of Georgia won the 2026 Advocacy in Action competitions. The final round took place Wednesday at the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition in Moultrie. Georgia Farm Bureau sponsors the competition, which gives students a platform to showcase their knowledge, advocacy skills, and innovative ideas that can revolutionize the agricultural industry.
“I think it’s very encouraging to see these kids being so engaged in agriculture,” said Georgia Rep. Angie O’Steen, one of the competition’s three judges. “A lot of times children will sign up to be in a club just for a college application, just to get some time with community service. But this is a real path to learning how to understand agriculture, so it’s important to see these kids out and learning. I’m just so impressed with every single one of these teams. They are really great.”
The Florida 4-H/IFAS High School team of students Cole Arrant, Timmy Hawes and Tommy Hawes, coached by Leanna Brown of the Metro Atlanta Chamber won over second place Long County and third place Bronson (Fla.) High School.
Long County, coached by Katie Duvall of the Georgia Chamber, was represented by students Shawn Thornton, Isiah Henderson and Antonio Ricks II.
Bronson Middle and High School, coached by Wes Robinson of the American Chemistry Council, included students Kevin “Kaj” Arcangeli, Medline Garner and Micah Stuart.
“It kind of blows me away to see, especially these high school kids, just how well informed and prepared and well-spoken they are,” said Alabama Farmers Federation Director of State Legislative Programs Grace Heim. “I really credit their 4-H chapters and FFA chapters for giving them those soft skills to come in and just confidently deliver these presentations. It is really awesome to see.”
The UGA team of Sravani Kari, Adeline Bennett and Emma Pastor, coached by Ben Morris of UGA Government Relations, beat ABAC (Cassidy Barnett, Carlye Green and Lydia Hill, coached by Jake Tench of the Georgia Agribusiness Council) and Florida State University (Ian Hatcher, Everett Mangle and Summer Wayne, coached by Lance Watson of Florida Farm Bureau) for the college title.
“These competitions are very important to help have young people go out in the world and when they're out there prepared to know how to talk to people, to know how to convince people to do what we need to do to help the American farmers,” said judge Kelley Owen, executive vice president of the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association.
The winning teams received commemorative plaques and cash prizes in the amount of $600 (third place), $800 (second place) and $1,000 (first place). The first-place teams are also invited to participate in the 2027 GFB Day at the Capitol in Atlanta.
In the final round, the teams pitched policy ideas on the topic, “Staying competitive in the global market” to the judges.
The competition, in its sixth year, drew entries from 18 high schools and six colleges from Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The initial round consisted of video submissions and the finalist teams were chosen from those.
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