National Ag Day 2014!

It's National Ag Day!



I've been reading great post after great post about all the wonderful things that Agriculture does for the world. Agriculturalists help to feed and clothe the world, as well as conserving and caring for the wide open spaces and land that might otherwise be swallowed up by the growing metropolises. Almost every product that we use in our everyday life contains some sort of by-product from livestock or crops! I've shared this cattle photo before but will do so again.


If you want to read more about National Ag Day visit agday.org!

I spent my morning helping to weigh and bleed (draw blood as part of research projects) nursery piglets. What better way to spend National Ag Day than working at the farm? I couldn't figure out what I wanted to post for today when I remembered a sign that I took a photo of at the Aquarium (I know you are thinking this girl is crazy, what does a sign from the Aquarium have to do with National Ag Day??).

I almost fell over when I saw this sign. How perfect!

Nobody understands intelligent conservation practices better than farmers and ranchers! If a farm or ranch is not properly cared for it will cease to be profitable. And unfortunately, without money, farm families cannot hang onto their dream...especially since their dreams are to run a business!

That's right, farming is a business, as well as a way of life!  

I've seen too many farms that were not properly cared for then sold off and turned into housing developments. Goodbye gorgeous farmland...hello postage stamp yards and cookie cutter houses. But that's a melancholic diatribe for another day.

Anyway, growing up in Virginia I had no idea that water was so scarce for farmers and ranchers in some parts of the world (and US). Moving to Wyoming changed that misconception immediately! I even took a class titled Water Resource Economics because Water is a huge deal!

The speeches I give on behalf of Operation Main Street have a great video explaining water concerns; here are the quick facts:

1/32ed of the Earth is considered arable farmland.

Less than 1/2 of 1% of the world's water is available for human use!

70% of that is used to irrigate in order to grow food to feed the population that is increasing at a rate of more than 200,000 people a day (aka adding another LA and Chicago every month)!

As the population increases, the need for extra food and clothing (and everything else) is going to increase. So while this was a far from comprehensive post regarding Agriculture...I hope we can all take at least a few moments today and say a huge THANK YOU to all those Agriculturalists out there. And maybe even say a prayer for them...because without them we would all be Naked and Afraid (similar to the TV show with that name). 

Happy National Ag Day!!!