It’s Time To Celebrate Agriculture
03/15/2010 01:14PM
CattleNetwork.com
Agriculture has challenges ahead in spades. From individual farm profitability concerns to increasing government regulation on virtually every front to the endless battle against insidious and overt activist group messages, there’s no shortage of issues that pile up.
Still, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s young farmers and ranchers survey conducted last month, despite the challenges, 80 percent of those responding to its 18th annual survey say they are more optimistic than they were five years ago, while 82 percent say they are better off than they were five years ago.
That’s because agriculture remains a huge economic engine from one end of the country to another. The details of this success offer some excellent points to share about agriculture during this National Agriculture Week. This celebration of all things agricultural offers an excellent chance to counteract some of the negativity swirling around production agriculture.
For example, I bet most people don’t know that agriculture employs more than 22 million American workers, or about 17 percent of the total U.S. workforce. Or that agriculture generates 20 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, that agricultural land provides habitat for 75 percent of the nation’s wildlife, that American consumers spend just 9.3 percent of their annual income on food — the lowest percentage in the world, and that individuals, family partnerships or family corporations operate 99 percent of U.S. farms. Read More
So many times we get wrapped up in the stress of farming and ranching and forget to enjoy it. We have so much to celebrate in agriculture. Food has never been raised more efficiently or safer than it is right now. For ten thousand years humans have been genetically enhancing their crops and livestock, along with learning how to process and store the harvest. So what better time to celebrate this feat than during National Ag Week! If you’ve never taken the opportunity to visit with someone about where their food comes from, this week would be a great time to start.
Showing posts with label National Ag Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Ag Week. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thank A Farmer
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tell a farmer ‘thank you.’ Today.
by Susan Crowell
North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler was eating lunch with some staff members at a local restaurant recently when a woman walked by, laid a napkin on his table, and kept on walking to the cash register.
“I picked up the napkin and noticed she had written a note on it,” Troxler wrote in the department’s blog March 11.
“It said, ‘Thank you for protecting our food supply.’“
The woman was gone before Troxler could respond.
What a wonderful, unexpected reaffirmation of the work Troxler and others in the North Carolina department of agriculture are doing. A simple, heartfelt thank you.
Farm and Dairy received a similar hand-written note from a Geauga County reader last week, too. All it said was: “God bless the American Farmer! No one else is going to!!”
This is National Ag Week, and National Ag Day is traditionally celebrated on the first day of spring — this year on March 20. It is, I think, a good time to say thanks.
Thanks for doing a hundred thankless jobs. Who else wants to muck out stalls or scrape alleys or haul manure? Who else wants to milk cows two and three times a day, seven days a week? Who else wants to castrate or dehorn calves, or fill out reams of forms at the Farm Service Agency office? Who else wants to work in one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States?
Read More
National Agriculture Week is a fantastic time to for a two-way conversation about agriculture to happen. First, we need to take this opportunity to tell the story of our farms and ranches to our neighbors and local communities. Invite them out for a tour, or make a presentation about your operation to civic group. The sky is the limit when it comes to ways of sharing your story. And second, for consumers, this a chance for you to contact a local producer and tell them you appreciate the fact that they grow your food. Or support them at a local farmers market. These are the little things that can keep us connected as communities and neighbors.
Tell a farmer ‘thank you.’ Today.
by Susan Crowell
North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler was eating lunch with some staff members at a local restaurant recently when a woman walked by, laid a napkin on his table, and kept on walking to the cash register.
“I picked up the napkin and noticed she had written a note on it,” Troxler wrote in the department’s blog March 11.
“It said, ‘Thank you for protecting our food supply.’“
The woman was gone before Troxler could respond.
What a wonderful, unexpected reaffirmation of the work Troxler and others in the North Carolina department of agriculture are doing. A simple, heartfelt thank you.
Farm and Dairy received a similar hand-written note from a Geauga County reader last week, too. All it said was: “God bless the American Farmer! No one else is going to!!”
This is National Ag Week, and National Ag Day is traditionally celebrated on the first day of spring — this year on March 20. It is, I think, a good time to say thanks.
Thanks for doing a hundred thankless jobs. Who else wants to muck out stalls or scrape alleys or haul manure? Who else wants to milk cows two and three times a day, seven days a week? Who else wants to castrate or dehorn calves, or fill out reams of forms at the Farm Service Agency office? Who else wants to work in one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States?
Read More
National Agriculture Week is a fantastic time to for a two-way conversation about agriculture to happen. First, we need to take this opportunity to tell the story of our farms and ranches to our neighbors and local communities. Invite them out for a tour, or make a presentation about your operation to civic group. The sky is the limit when it comes to ways of sharing your story. And second, for consumers, this a chance for you to contact a local producer and tell them you appreciate the fact that they grow your food. Or support them at a local farmers market. These are the little things that can keep us connected as communities and neighbors.
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