Margo Long, director of the Center for Gifted Education at Whitworth University, offers a summer school class designed to help educators teach skills their students will need to thrive in the global future. Margo’s always looking for adults who possess these characteristics. I spent an afternoon with Fred Fleming on his Reardan farm recently, and then I phoned Margo and said, “Invite Fred to your class. He’s your example.”

Characteristic: Think outside the box from within the box you know best.

Fred example: Soft white wheat grows beautifully throughout the Palouse. Between 85 percent and 90 percent of that wheat is shipped overseas to Asia, East India and Pakistan where it is made into flat breads and noodles. Fred is a fourth-generation farmer. Growing soft, white wheat was the “box” Fred knew best.

A decade ago, he and fellow farmer Karl Kupers were tired. Fred explained: “The last 15 years of agriculture have been fairly discouraging. You figure for your time and investment, you could have done something else and brought back 15-to-20 percent return. You’re lucky to get 3-to-4 percent farming – and that’s with a government subsidy.”

One day he and Kupers had this conversation: What do we do best? We grow wheat. What do the customers want? Red wheat. Well, we don’t raise red wheat. So let’s start growing it. They did. And they planted this red wheat in a no-till way, a practice known as sustainable farming. It’s too complicated for me to explain well in this small space. But basically, no-till farming preserves the soil and prevents erosion.

Fred and Karl talked 10 other Palouse farmers into joining their red-wheat, no-till experiment. They named the grain they produced Shepherd’s Grain. They market it to restaurants and stores throughout the Northwest. Their products grow more popular as consumers – angry and grossed out about China’s deadly dog food and tainted toothpaste – want the ability to track down the source of the food they feed their families.

Workers who have toiled for years in the same profession can feel anxious and on the verge of burning out, Margo says. Some think that if they jump to a new profession, all will be well again. But no profession is immune from technological changes and global currents.

Best to stay in the “box” you know and use your accumulated knowledge to try creative things, she says. It’s working for Fred. He introduces himself this way: “My name is Fred and I’m a recovering conventional farmer.”

Characteristic: Team-based salesmanship.

Fred example: Media folks love Fred. He looks like a modern made-for-TV farmer. He returns your calls, drops everything to show you his 3,800-acre farm, explains no-till farming for dummies. He doesn’t mind being the face man for Shepherd’s Grain, but he’s not an ego salesman.

He credits Karl Kupers all the time. He applauds the other farmers who signed on to the Shepherd’s Grain experiment. He insists that I tour Hearthbread Bakehouse in northeast Spokane, where Shepherd’s Grain is baked into bread, buns and bagels, and interview owner Larry Condon. When I reached Fred on his cell phone Thursday, he was riding in his truck with Josh Dorf from Stone-Buhr Flour Co. Fred handed the phone to Josh so he could tell me about the company’s new product: “All-purpose flour from Stone-Buhr made with Shepherd’s Grain.”

Characteristic: Building a pass-on legacy.

Fred example: His two grown children don’t farm. Fred and his wife, Vicki, are OK with that. And they want their 10-year-old granddaughter Mia to make up her own mind about a future career. But Fred takes Mia to food shows. She tags along on farm tours with journalists. And he’s role modeling how to grow older without growing crabby. If he hadn’t switched from conventional farming, Fred says he’d spend his days complaining about wheat prices and government subsidies.

Instead, he says, “I’m an 18-year-old in a 57-year-old body!”