Resources

So this whole project is really stressing me out. I am a deadline kind of gal, so when it comes to big projects like this…. I naturally freak out! Since I haven’t really gotten the chance to explain the topic our group chose (good thing, because we just altered it yesterday!) I will talk briefly about the vision of the project. The other reason that I am going to do it, is so I can make it to 100 words faster!! I am at 81… So our topic for the project is going to center around Ethics at Livestock shows. This is going to run like a campaign, and encourage students, teachers, parents, community members, and all those involved in the livestock program why they show a project. We are concerned that if cheating isn’t eradicated, livestock shows will be banned.

In order to do this properly, we will definitely need some sources within OYE. The most important information we would need from them is financing. How much would they put towards a campaign idea such as this? There are many sponsors, so I would think that maybe if you team up with a couple Agriculture sponsors, they would put money into this campaign. The OYE site has all their sponsors as well as the head people who work to put OYE on. These people would be beneficial when we set up the campaign tour, and perhaps what audience we would be focusing on. Also on the OYE site there is the official rule book. Within the rule book there is the International Association of Fairs and Expositions. This is the complete list of what is expected of exhibitors including the zero tolerance of drugs.

Some sites which deal with ethics in general would probably be helpful. We are wanting a great slogan, so any creative ideas may come from an ethics site. We also need some hard core information on how to combat unethical behavior from a large demographic. We will be targeting students, parents, teachers, and jockey’s but each one of those groups needs a tailored message. There was something created in 1995 called the Livestock Ethics Task Force. I am not for sure if they are still doing there thing, but we can research it.

While I was researching possible sources, I ran across the Florida State fair board website and they actually require all exhibitors to take a husbandry and livestock ethics class before they are allowed to show in some of the main expos. I think this is a neat idea, and that we should look into a possibility of making all potential exhibitors take a mandatory class. Overall the main resources that we will be pulling from is sources which speak to ethical treatment of livestock, and then the OYE website. I would be interested though in trying to get in contact with someone to look at the OYE budget and see if they could fund something like this, or if it would need extra sponsoring. A way we could eliminate some of the costs is to bring in alumni or producers to teach some of the workshops and classes.