February 20 marks the 10th annual Give FFA Day during National FFA Week. This day is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of more than 1 million FFA members across the country and growing the next generation of leaders who will change the world.

The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization with the mission of helping students develop their leadership skills and explore career paths in agriculture.

Funds raised on Give FFA Day support FFA and agricultural education on local, state, and national levels. During the 24 hours of giving on February 20, donors can make a philanthropic gift to the National FFA Organization and the state FFA associations of their choice.

Among the many opportunities, the money raised supports special programs and events, provides iconic FFA blue jackets to students, supplements travel costs for career and leadership opportunities, and pays for teacher support and resources throughout the year.

“Give FFA Day is an opportunity for each FFA supporter to magnify their impact on the lives of more than a million FFA members when they join other donors across the country,” said Kimberly Coveney, senior manager of individual giving, National FFA Foundation. “We know that every gift makes a difference, and we are grateful for our donors and their continued support and belief in our members, FFA, and agricultural education.”

The National FFA Organization has already received matches from RFD-TV for $100,000 and John Deere for $50,000. The goal for the day is to raise $1.5 million, with the hope of exceeding last year’s efforts when supporters donated more than $1.44 million. To receive a text alert on Give FFA Day to donate directly to the National FFA Organization, visit the donation page. Mobile payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay are accepted.

“It is because of your generosity that we are able to embrace all that FFA has to offer. Our students benefit greatly from your contributions as they are given access to conferences, hands-on learning, and career opportunities that equip them with skills that extend beyond high school education.” said Makena Stanisai, a 2023-24 California FFA officer.

Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came off a day during which he was hammered for more than three hours by members of the Senate Finance Committee. Today — testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — marked Day 2 in hearings on his path toward a confirmation vote, during which Kennedy said he will work to make sure farmers are full partners in any health approaches he implements.

The HHS Cabinet position includes leadership over the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both of which carry powerful influence in the research, communication, record-keeping, and regulation of American agriculture.

Kennedy has long found himself under fire for past statements related to his stance on vaccines, but the first day’s questioning and testimony went far beyond that to include rural health care, his ideas for reforming Medicaid, his financial stake in continuing lawsuits against drug companies, and his willingness to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. farmers.

The nominee seemed far more comfortable on the second day, addressing with mixed results some of the key concerns that senators threw at him.

The Make America Healthy Again movement “simply cannot succeed if we do not have the partnership of America’s farmers,” Kennedy told the committee today. And he emphasized that too many people in the government are unwilling to have what he says are these toughest conversations.

In a response to Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Kennedy reiterated his background in 4-H and that he had worked summers on ranches as a child.

“I’ve worked for years representing farmers in various forms of litigation,” RFK Jr. said. “We are losing farmers today, and we can’t afford to lose a single farmer. … We have our farmers on an offramp of chemically intensive agriculture, which they don’t want to do, which even the chemical industry is ready to change, so that they can grow crops that they can sell in Europe.”

Kennedy said that there is illness all around the farming community (he specifically highlighted Parkinson’s disease), and noted that it’s “undoubtedly related to the intensity of chemical pesticides.”

Largely, the divisiveness throughout these hearings isn’t about whether the acute and chronic health of America needs to be improved (that much, pretty much everyone agrees upon), it’s about whether RFK Jr. has the depth of knowledge, experience, and strategy to be the one to lead that effort.

Republican senators have largely been cordial and supportive of the nominee, while Democratic senators have tended to be more poignant in their criticism.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and chair of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, was perhaps the most commanding presence in the room today. Cassidy is a physician who has not indicated which way he is leaning on Kennedy’s confirmation, and after his early questioning specific to health issues, he seemed satisfied with the responses from the nominee.

Overall, today’s confirmation hearing was far more toned down and less tense than Wednesday’s hearing, even from some of Kennedy’s fiercest critics like Sen. Bernie Sanders.

About an hour into the hearing, Kennedy stated during one response, “President Trump was the best president in modern American history for the American farmer. He was the first one to see farm prices go up. He has instructed me to take care of the farmers and make sure they’re full partners.”

Yet part of the difficulties for Kennedy is that there are also many outside forces working against him. This week, Farm Journal published the results of its Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor survey, which asked whether RFK Jr. would be a positive choice for U.S. agriculture. A decisive 90 percent of ag economists surveyed said, “No.” 

Earlier this month in a letter to senators, the right-leaning Breakthrough Institute said, “By hamstringing technological advances and crucial inputs key to the maintenance of U.S. agricultural abundance and global competitiveness, he will make life harder for agricultural producers, decrease food production, and increase food prices for American consumers.”

In his opening statement, Kennedy repeated many of the same comments he gave Wednesday to the Finance Committee, particularly around the numbers on obesity and chronic diseases in the U.S. He also affirmed wanting to partner with farmers if confirmed into the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions began at 10 a.m. ET today and is currently ongoing. This article will be updated as new information and statements are presented.

DAILY Bites

• Tokyo University of Science developed a multi-camera system to track dairy cows, improving health monitoring and farm management.

• The system uses location-based tracking for higher accuracy and less stress on cows than wearable devices.

• Tests showed 90% accuracy, with plans to automate setup and enhance disease detection.

DAILY Discussion

Researchers develop a method to track dairy cows across a barn with multi-camera systems, improving accuracy

High-quality milk remains in high demand, but managing the health of dairy cows is becoming increasingly challenging. To tackle this, researchers from Tokyo University of Science have developed an innovative location information-based technique that uses multi-camera systems to track individual cows across an entire barn.

This method enables health monitoring, early disease detection, and gestation management, making it ideal for large-scale implementation to ensure dairy farm health and ensure consistent, high-quality milk production.

As dairy farmers dwindle every year, the demand for high-quality milk remains steadfast, driving a surge in dairy farming. Although this shift improves efficiency, it makes managing the health of individual cows more challenging. Effective health management has thereby become a critical issue in the dairy industry.

Early detection of abnormalities, swift diagnosis, prevention of disease spread, and maintaining proper breeding cycles are essential for desirable and stable milk production.

While other methods are available, like using mechanical devices attached to dairy cows for health monitoring, non-intrusive and non-contact techniques may be preferred. Researchers say that these methods are less stressful for the cows, as they do not require any physical attachments, making them more suitable for everyday use on farms.

These include advanced deep learning methods, such as camera-based tracking and image analysis. This approach is based on the idea that dairy cows often exhibit unusual behaviors and movement patterns due to illness, diseases, the estrus cycle, stress, or anxiety. By tracking individual movements using cameras—such as walking patterns, visits to feeding stations, and water consumption frequency—farmers can analyze cow behavior, enabling early prediction of diseases or health issues.

The team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Yota Yamamoto from the Department of Information and Computer Technology, Faculty of Engineering, along with Kazuhiro Akizawa, Shunpei Aou, and Professor Yukinobu Taniguchi, has developed a novel location-based method using a multi-camera system to track cows across an entire barn. Their findings were made available online on December 4, 2024, and will be published in Volume 229 of Computers and Electronics in Agriculture on February 1, 2025.

The proposed method for tracking dairy cows in barns relies on location information rather than complicated image patterns. Dr. Yamamoto explains the advancements of their technique, “This is the first attempt to track dairy cows across an entire barn using multi-camera systems. While previous studies have used multiple cameras to track different species of cows, each camera typically tracks cows individually, often the same cow as a different one across cameras. Although some methods enable consistent tracking across cameras, they have been limited to two or three cameras covering only a portion of the barn.”

The system relies on overlapping camera views to accurately and consistently track dairy cows as they move from one camera to another, enabling seamless tracking across multiple cameras. By carefully managing the number of cameras and their fields of view, the system can minimize the negative effects of obstacles like walls or pillars, which can cause fragmented camera overlaps in barns with complex layouts. This approach overcomes common challenges, such as the cows’ speckled fur patterns and distortions caused by camera lenses, which often make traditional tracking methods less accurate.

In tests using video footage of cows moving closely together in a barn, this method achieved about 90 percent accuracy in tracking the cows, measured through Multi-Object Tracking Accuracy, and around 80 percent Identification F1 score for identifying each individual cow. This marks a significant improvement over conventional methods, which struggled with accuracy, especially in crowded or complex barn environments.

It also performs well in different situations, whether the cows are moving slowly or standing still, and also addressed the challenge of cows lying down by adjusting the cow height parameter to 0.9 meters, lower than a standing cow’s height. This adjustment improved tracking accuracy despite posture changes.

“This method enables optimal management and round-the-clock health monitoring of dairy cows, ensuring high-quality milk production at a reasonable price,” says Dr. Yamamoto. In the future, the team plans to automate the camera setup process to simplify and speed up the installation of the system in various barns.

They also aim to enhance the system’s ability to detect dairy cows that may be showing signs of illness or other health issues, helping farmers monitor and manage the health of their herds more efficiently.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., perhaps the most contentious Cabinet-level nomination for the second Trump administration, was the center of combative and tense testimony Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee in his bid to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. It took mere minutes into the hearing for Kennedy to feel the heat from aggressive and pointed criticism about his track record and to be told that “he should not be entrusted with the health and well-being of the American people.”

RFK Jr. has long stood against mainstream nutrition research and been combative against vaccine science, and he is known for opposing modern agriculture practices — particularly concerning pesticide use, GMOs, and labeling — and has repeatedly advocated against large-scale producers. Because the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are housed within HHS, the leader of this agency has commanding influence over the agricultural sector, as well as fundamental health.

“I have a personal commitment and a long history of working with farmers,” Kennedy said to counter some of his the criticism coming his way. “I want to make sure that I understand the very narrow margins that the American farmers and ranchers are dealing with, and I don’t want under my watch for a single farmers to have to leave for economic or for regulatory or bureaucratic reasons if I serve.”

From the onset, Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proved to be one of Kennedy’s biggest antagonists.

“He has made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting life-saving vaccines. It has been lucrative for him,” Wyden said in his opening remarks. “It’s a slippery tactic to dodge responsibility, which is, in my view, absurd for someone who is trying to win confirmation for a job that is entirely about making recommendations. These recommendations are going to have life or death consequences for these people.”

Kennedy opened by stating his position about chronic disease and health care spending. “A healthy person has 1,000 dreams, a sick person has only one,” the nominee said. “Today, over half of our country is chronically ill. … Our country will sink beneath a sea of desperation of debt, if we can’t answer the question of why our healthcare is so high in the first place. Our answer is chronic disease.”

He added that reports calling him “anti-vaccine” are wrong just as at least one audience member in the chamber shouted “You lie!” in response. Throughout the hearings, several senators challenged Kennedy on his past criticisms of vaccines and the anti-vaccination stances of the Children’s Health Defense organization that he founded.

While much of the focus is on health specifically, the whole of his agricultural impact can not be ignored. For example, Kennedy pushed back when Sen. Michael Bennet from Colorado highlighted a previous statement of Kennedy’s in which the nominee claimed that “pesticides cause kids to become transgender.” In the wake of Kennedy’s denial, Bennet submitted Kennedy’s previous statement into the hearing record.

And since RFK Jr.’s nomination in early November, stakeholders in agriculture — as well as within his own family — have raised alarm bells loudly and frequently.

One columnist said in a November piece that RFK Jr. poses an “absolute danger” to agriculture, largely because he has backed a long list of conspiracy and fringe theories, which he would likely intertwine with the food and agricultural space (such as his false claims that the “mass-spraying of glyphosate on wheat” has been the root of celiac disease and gluten allergies in recent years). Kennedy, who made his career as an environmental lawyer, is also a stringent raw milk advocate and has voiced skepticism about the polio and measles vaccines.

This week, Farm Journal published the results of its Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor survey, which asked whether RFK Jr. would be a positive choice for U.S. agriculture. A decisive 90 percent of ag economists surveyed said, “No.” 

Earlier this month in a letter to senators, the right-leaning Breakthrough Institute said, “By hamstringing technological advances and crucial inputs key to the maintenance of U.S. agricultural abundance and global competitiveness, he will make life harder for agricultural producers, decrease food production, and increase food prices for American consumers.”

“I expect you to leave agriculture practice and regulations to the proper agencies, and for the most part that’s the USDA and EPA,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, referring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“In my advocacy, I’ve often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions,” the nominee said. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”

He went on to say, “It is a spiritual issue, and it is a moral issue. We cannot do our role as a moral authority around the world, and we are writing off an entire generation of kids.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump adopted Kennedy as an ally and expressed a desire to “let Kennedy go wild” on health and food policies. Many are concerned that this untethered freedom could create substantial regulatory disruptions for American agriculture.

Despite the fact that there is widespread fear that he would cut funding for vital health programs in a way that would impact even those under state control, the nominee does have some support, with a small handful of groups and outlets calling him “beneficial to agriculture.” Thom Tillis, a senator from North Carolina, included into the record a stack of signed support letters for Kennedy. 

After defending himself as being pro-safety in the health industry, Kennedy noted, “Nor am I the enemy of American farmers. America’s producers are the bedrock of American culture and national security. I was a 4-H kid and I spent my summer working on ranches. I want to work with our farmers and food producers to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity. I cannot succeed without a full partnership of American farmers.”

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana sought assurances from Kennedy that he would work collaboratively with partners at the USDA and other federal agencies, as well as Montana farmers and ranchers, before enacting “any policy that might affect or impact food supply.” At another point, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma noted that he spoke with RFK Jr. about row crops and other ag issues in private leading up to the hearing and was satisfied with the nominee’s responses, but those discussions were not laid out during the hearing.

Yet the criticisms during the hearing and in the days leading up to it have largely overshadowed the praise. Just a day before the hearing, in a harsh letter released to lawmakers, RFK Jr.’s cousin, former U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, called the nominee unfit for the HHS job and a “predator.”

Building on that idea, in one instance, Wyden said to the nominee, “You have spent years pushing conflicting stories about vaccines. You say one thing, and then you say another. In your testimony today under oath, you denied that you are anti-vaccine, but during a podcast interview, you said ‘no vaccine is safe and effective.’ You said, ‘You would do anything, pay anything to go back in time and not vaccinate your kids.’ Are you lying to Congress today when you say that you are pro-vaccine, or did you lie on the podcast?”

Senate Finance Committee members Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined Wyden in giving opening statements.

“Regardless of political party, everyone in this room recognizes that our current situation [about health in America] has fallen short,” Crapo said.

“Committee staff have examined thousands of pages of statements, books, and podcast statements,” Wyden followed. “The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines.” In the audience to support Kennedy during the hearing was Food Babe Vani Hari and Moms Across American founder Zen Honeycutt.

There were multiple audience disruptions during the Senate Finance Committee hearing, with the chairman threatening to call the police if order was not maintained. People in COVID-19 masks were ushered out during one disruption.

This is not the only hearing that RFK Jr. will have to go through. He is scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at 10 a.m. ET Thursday. However, Wednesday’s Finance Committee hearing was the more important one, because this will be the membership that decides whether his nomination goes to the full Senate for a vote.