Celebrate agriculture! National Ag Day, March 20

March 20 is the first day of spring, but it’s also National Ag Day. The Agriculture Council of America hosts National Ag Day as part of the week long observance National Ag Week, March 14-20, to celebrate agriculture’s impact on our lives. Each March, producers, agricultural associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless others across America join together to recognize the contributions of agriculture.

Hugh Weathers, Commissioner of Agriculture, says that this observance is a reminder that the things we eat, use and wear on a daily basis are all products of agriculture. “For one week out of the year, the focus is on agriculture’s contributions,” he said. “I like to think here in South Carolina we recognize those contributions every day.”

There are many reasons to celebrate American agriculture – for the jobs it creates, the innovation it spurs and for giving us the world’s most abundant and safest food. Agriculture’s accomplishments may touch us in different ways, but they all improve our quality of life.

Agribusiness is our state’s number one industry creating nearly 200,000 jobs and generating $34 billion a year for the state’s economy. Our total output for our state’s economy is approximately $140 billion. Break all these billions down and you realize that agribusiness accounts for almost one-fourth of our economy.

Today, one American farmer feeds more than 144 people. Here in South Carolina, the ratio of principle farm operators to non-farmers is about 1 to 170 people, assuming there is one principle operator per farm in South Carolina with a population is 4.6 million. Quite simply, agriculture is doing more and doing it better. As the population grows, there is an even greater demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel.

Commissioner Weathers said that a bumper sticker circulated a few years back says it best – “What would you be without farmers? – naked, hungry, and homeless”

“So, this year,” Commission Weathers said, “let’s not celebrate agriculture for one day or one week, let’s celebrate it all year long and recognize what farmers do for us.”