This Story is by Chelsea Honnette, Project Manager, AGCO. Working on AGCO’s Global Fuse Technology team
There’s over 1.3 million men and women working in the equipment manufacturing industry in the U.S. That number often surprises people.
What also surprises folks is that many of those workers are also farmers – like my family, owners of about 500 acres of a farm producing soybeans and corn.
My day job is acting as a Program Manager with the AGCO Corporation, a global equipment manufacturer, at its Intivity Center based in Jackson, Minnesota. AGCO is the world’s largest manufacturer of machinery and equipment focused entirely on the agricultural industry.
That means I’m part of a team that builds the equipment needed for farmers just like me.
It also means that I care a lot about policies that can impact both my job and my farm. And that happens a lot working in agriculture equipment manufacturing. From the 2018 Farm Bill, which once passed would provide much-needed stability for the agricultural economy, to U.S. trade policies, like tariffs currently imposed on goods coming from China or on steel and aluminum.
These are policies that make a big difference between a farmer like me making a profit on my yield or my manufacturing co-workers just trying to provide a stable quality of life for their family.
That’s why it’s important to get involved and stay informed. Fortunately, as I found it our industry has made that easier through the I Make America grassroots campaign. For example, I attended this year’s I Make America Town Hall Tour, which made a stop at AGCO’s Jackson, Minnesota Intivity Center and got to hear firsthand from experts about some of the top policy issues. In addition to the town hall, IMA does facility tours with elected officials, shares election information, and a lot more.
In the end, the biggest thing that’s going to make a difference is our industry’s 1.3 million workers feeling motivated to learn and stay engaged.
I encourage more workers to get involved because it keeps our industry strong, or farming families strong, but our nation strong too.
