“America’s ‘Most Valuable People’ aren’t found on magazine covers. Rather, they are found in farm fields, feed stores, and livestock barns. They are American farmers, a group whose labors, although largely unrecognized, are vital to the lives of all U.S. citizens – or at least the ones that eat,” writes the 2011 Ag Day Written Essay Contest Winner Nora Faris.
Faris of Concordia, Missouri, continues by writing, “In this modern age of supermarkets and 24-hour fast food restaurants, it has become increasingly hard for the American public to fathom where their food comes from. Long gone are the days when a chicken dinner 
meant selecting a bird from the henhouse. Today’s consumer, faced with an endless array of choices, selects their poultry with little knowledge of its origin, unaware of the work that went into producing and dispatching the bird. They fail to realize the vital connection between farm and food, between production and consumption. Little do they realize that without our nation’s strong agricultural infrastructure of farmers, their grocery store shelves would be bare.”
It’s so true that many Americans have no concept of where their food comes from or how it’s produced. AgWeb Editor Greg Vincent recently conducted “man on the street” interviews in New York City by asking them, “What comes to mind when ya think of a farmer?” Although the indivdiuals’ responses were entertaining, it was a sad commentary because it highlighted how many Americans are ignorant about their food supply. It’s one thing not to understand how a dairy cow is fed and cared for; it’s another thing to not even know that the milk in a milk chocolate bar was produced by a cow.
“Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few people truly understand this contribution,” writes Jeffrey Stapper in the Southwest Farm Press. “Today each American farmer feeds more than 144 people, a dramatic increase from 25 people in the 1960s. Quite simply, American agriculture is doing more – and doing it better.”
Hats off to America’s farmers who produce the safest, most abundant food supply in the world! Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds is proud to help you feed and fuel the world.