Ag News
Service a big theme at YF&R Summer Leadership Conference
Posted on Jul 22, 2026 at 14:14 PM
The theme for the 2026 Georgia Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) Summer Leadership Conference was “Rise & Thrive,” and there were multiple opportunities to learn how to be better farmers, connect with existing and new friends, all aimed at rising and thriving. The conference took place July 15-18 on Jekyll Island. And yes, there was seafood. Approximately 250 YF&R families enjoyed the annual conference fish fry on July 16 at Great Dunes Park.
There was also an unofficial subtheme: Let’s look out for each other. Conference attendees assembled more than 13,000 meals for distribution through a local food bank and they heard messages of service from NAMEIT founder Lindsey McCann and keynote speaker Lt. Col. Dan Rooney.
Young Farmers & Ranchers put together meals to be distributed through local food banks. / photo by Logan Thomas.
Attendees learned about various programs offered through the USDA to help young and beginning farmers succeed, new tools to help navigate complex pesticide use issues, consider before deciding to run for public office and important issues to address when starting an agritourism business.
Lindsey McCann / photo by Jay Stone
McCann turns heartache into service business
By the time Zack McCann, an Extension agent in Banks County, died of colon cancer on Aug. 8, 2025, his wife, Lindsey, had recognized a glaring need in the course of cancer treatments that had little to do with which medicines to use, which doctors to see or what therapies to consider.
In the lives of cancer patients, while the vicious disease is stealing away tissue, it’s also ravaging the lives of the people around them. Lindsey, who works as a nurse, already knew how time-consuming it could be, and as Zack’s journey moved toward the end, she experienced firsthand what doesn’t get talked about enough in cancer conversation: While the patient is confronting the treatment protocols, everyday life gets much more difficult.
“We were just kind of going through it and we were like, ‘We don’t know what to do.’ There was no roadmap,” Lindsey said.
Things like getting the lawn mowed, transporting children to school or extracurricular activities, shopping for food, pet care, house cleaning and more, all become secondary and sometimes left untended.
“We have the doctors, the medical team, our community, but we never seemed to get any real time together that wasn’t dealing with cancer or household responsibilities,” said Lindsey, who spoke during lunch at the GFB Young Farmers & Ranchers Summer Leadership Conference on July 16.
She described one situation to GFB media that happened in the course of Zack’s treatment.
“Life didn't stop just because he was sick. So, we just juggled and juggled. and there For a while I was working night shift, and then I would get off work in the morning and drive him to Atlanta to his chemo appointment. I would sleep in the car while he was getting chemo and then we would drive home,” she said.
After Zack passed, Lindsey sought ways to ease these burdens for cancer patients and their families. Out of this came NAMEIT (Nurture Against Major Events, Illnesses and Treatments), Lindsey’s business aimed at connecting those families with partner businesses in their communities. Through a NAMEIT registry, patients build a list of services they need from a network of local businesses. NAMEIT facilitates crowdfunding to cover the costs; friends, family and even strangers can make donations, which are used to pay businesses for their services.
Lindsey said it works like this:
“A patient will go online and create a registry. They’ll pick out services that are local to their area. Say they have an eight-hour chemo day, and the grass needs mowed. They will go on, they will choose a company that they want that signed up that’s in their area, and their community will crowdfund to cover the expenses for this company.”
Lindsey had a two-fold mission in partnering with GFB at the YF&R Summer Leadership Conference: a.) encourage farmers to participate as registered businesses to provide fresh, nutritious foods to cancer patients and their families and b.) urge them to pay attention to health issues, particularly with respect to colorectal cancer.
In Zack’s case, doctors the McCanns consulted with felt he was too young (he was 32 when he died) for colorectal cancer. By the time it was diagnosed, he was at stage four. Lindsey said that people under age 45 are at low risk for colorectal cancer, but nationwide 68 people under the age of 50 per day are diagnosed with it. When it’s detected at stage one, colon cancer is 97% curable.
“It’s the most curable cancer there is,” Lindsey said.
For more information about NAMEIT, visit https://nameitregistry.org.
Lt. Col. Dan Rooney
Rooney offers views on living a life of purpose
Rooney, an Air Force fighter pilot, professional golfer and founder of the Folds of Honor scholarship program delivered an inspirational keynote address on July 16, emphasizing discipline, faith and service to others.
Folds of Honor provides scholarships, to family members of fallen servicemembers or to servicemembers who sustain debilitating injuries. In the past year, Rooney said, Folds of Honor provided scholarships to approximately 700 people in Georgia.
“These are military families, first responder families who’ve had somebody killed or critically wounded coming to rescue us defending freedom,” Rooney said. “My ask for everybody here when you’re having fun is visit our website, www.foldsofhonor.org and just share our website with your family and friends.”
He also authored "Fly Into the Wind: How to Harness Faith and Fearlessness on Your Ascent to Greatness.
Glover gives election-year update
GFB Agricultural Programs Specialist ElizaJane Glover gave a brief update on the organization’s “I Farm. I Vote.” campaign and a breakdown of the Georgia election slate. The November ballot, Glover, pointed out, will feature votes on a wide range of state and federal offices, including governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, multiple commissioners (agriculture, insurance, labor), state school superintendent, two public service commission seats, a U.S. Senate race, all 14 U.S. House seats, all 56 Georgia Senate seats, all 180 Georgia House seats, and numerous local offices.
Glover encouraged the young farmers and ranchers to check and make sure they are properly registered to vote, and to engage with not only candidates, but other voters in their communities.
“It's important for you to get out and see, hear and tell your story,” she said. “Social media is a great way. Conversation and community visibility, yard signs, telling people I voted for so-and-so because I believe that they're going to be the best for agriculture or for our family farm.”
Look for GFB’s election guide from the Public Policy Department at www.gfb.org/i-farm-i-vote, which includes an I Farm. I Vote. promotional kit and links to voter resources.
Singleton offers tips to navigate pesticides regulations
During one of six educational breakout sessions, UGA Extension Sustainability Specialist Taylor Singleton presented information about the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and tools to help farmers stay compliant. The EPA, in its function of approving pesticide registrations, has to ensure ESA compliance for 1,200 registered active ingredients. Under the ESA, there are 1,685 protected species.
For farmers, a big part of the challenge is knowing if there are limits on whether the chemicals they’re using can be used and if so, how.
“We just have to make sure to read the labels of the products, the physical products that we're using,” Singleton said. “We’re required to check, we’re required to implement these ESA mitigations. And then we need to show in our records that we've done this.”
A key portion of this is minimizing drift and runoff in Pesticide Use Limitation Areas (PULAs). To aid farmers with compliance, the EPA offers Bulletins Live! Two – an online map-based tool that shows PULA requirements for specific areas.
The EPA also offers the Pesticide App for Label Mitigations (PALM), which features a runoff/erosion calculator and a spray drift calculator to help farmers avoid pesticide exposure to “nontarget” species.
Thinking about running for office?
During breakout sessions on July 17, American Farm Bureau Federation Director of Advocacy and Political Management Mike Sistak shared important principles to consider when evaluating whether to run for election to a public office. Sistak runs the AFBF Campaign School.
His six principles for election candidates:
1. Parties cannot get you elected. Sistak said the parties are concerned with top-of-ballot races like president, governor, House or Senate. “It is up to you because nobody else is going to care as much as you do because frankly, it's your reputation on the line. Your name is on the ballot,” Sistak said.
2. Elections are more often lost than won. One controversial statement can make an election loser out of a person considered a shoo-in. Sistak noted a Virginia governor’s race in which former Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a televised debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” McAuliffe went from a healthy lead in the polls to a narrow loss. The lesson, Sistak said, is to be very careful what you say.
3. 1 + 7 = 8. One campaign donor will tell seven other people about the candidate and encourage them to support the same candidate.
4. 14/86. Fourteen percent of people consider themselves the political class – the people in our society actively involved in governance, policy making and with political power. Candidates, Sistak said, should focus their campaign efforts on the remaining 86%.
5. Campaigns are perceptions and all politics are personal.
“We’re not voting for somebody because we know every single issue that’s going to be happening at the city council or at the state capitol,” Sistak said. “We’re making a judgment of that candidate that they're going to go to the state capitol and to the best of their ability, they are going to represent the interests of our communities.”
6. Candidates have three responsibilities – raise money, get their message out and ask for votes. Sistak said some candidates spend as much as 65% of their time raising money.
The non-partisan AFBF campaign school is typically offered by state Farm Bureaus.
Government resources for building first-generation farms
USDA Public Affairs Specialist Amelia Dortch, who serves as the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s (NRCS) beginning farmer and rancher coordinator gave conference attendees a summary of federal resources available to young and beginning farmers to help them get started. Dortch outlined how to determine which agency is appropriate when seeking federal help.
Dortch said farmers should reach out to FSA for loans and farm/land records, NRCS for technical and financial assistance to address soil, water, air, and other natural resource concerns, and Rural Development for value-added grants and cooperative agreements that support farm business development.
“If you need something to help you with irrigation, if you would start with NRCS, if you need a micro loan to help you build a structure on your farm, you would start with FSA, and then if you need a value-added producer grant, you will start with Rural Development,” Dortch said.
Building income through agritourism
In a July 18 breakout session, Karissa Ruth of Sara’s Fresh Market in Ridge Spring, S.C., offered pointers on creating farm income opportunities by adding agritourism activities. Ruth noted that for the farmer, an agritourism venue gives opportunities to diversify income, build trust and transparency with customers, gain immediate feedback from customers and give farmers more control over pricing and marketing.
The farm’s trademark greeting is “Hey Peaches,” and Ruth said her overarching focus is on creating and maintaining a family atmosphere.
“I want people to feel like family and they just happen to take home some produce,” she said. “That’s the way we make sure we treat everybody there.”
Ruth walked attendees through key aspects of an agritourism business plan, including location relative to population, financial feasibility, permitting, parking, insurance and more.
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