South Whitley, Indiana / Atlanta, Georgia – Ten-year-old Jackson Laux hails from South Whitley, Indiana, a town of under 2,000 in the northeast part of the state. Kendall Rae Johnson, also 10, calls Atlanta home. On the surface, the two have little in common besides age. Look a little closer, and the similarities run deep because of agriculture. Jackson is John Deere’s Chief Tractor Kid, his love for agricultural equipment equaled only by his knowledge of the field. Kendall Rae got her farming tract ID at six years old and is the youth ambassador for the National Urban Agriculture Initiative. Both are also social media stars: Jackson, a voice for the farmer from a small country town, and Kendall Rae, a voice for the farmer from the heart of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country.
Their love of agriculture can be credited to the generations before them. Jackson credits his maternal grandfather, Tracy Kuckuck, who grows row crops in South Whitley. “I spent a lot of hours riding in a tractor, on an armrest, with him,” Jackson said. He now farms 2 acres of his grandmother’s property, using a John Deere 3020 tractor and a Deere 6620 combine. In 2025, he grew Stine seed corn and achieved a final yield of 213 bushels per acre, exceeding his goal of 180. “I’m shooting for 180. If we get 210, I’m jumping up and down,” he said.
Kendall Rae’s journey began with her great-grandmother, Kate, who taught her to propagate collard greens when she was three years old. “It was magical to me, just seeing something so small grow into something so big,” she said. She now has an acre in southwest Atlanta at aGROWKulture Urban Farm, where she produces sweet corn, honey, and collard greens, marketing her produce through GrownBy and pop-up marketplaces. Her father, Quentin Johnson, recalled the first time she planted a collard green, and before long, the patio was filled with peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Their parents emphasize the importance of guidance paired with independence. “We’re here to support the ideas because we believe that the youth have the ideas,” Quentin said. Jessica Laux, Jackson’s mother, advised getting kids involved in what you like to do. “If you have a passion for it, then it’s going to rub off on them. But you have to involve them,” she said. Both families hope their stories inspire the next generation. Jackson encouraged kids to “keep doing it,” while Kendall Rae challenged families to “keep going. The earth relies on it.”
