Welcome to A Day In Agriculture
Sep 29, 2011
Good morning and welcome to Farm Journal Media’s first-ever "A Day in Agriculture." This is a day dedicated to showing the world the important role that U.S. agriculture plays in today’s society.
It seems that everywhere you look today, food is a major topic of conversation. From someone’s favorite new restaurant to that new food show on TV, it’s a hot discussion topic.
But another hot topic recently is about where that food comes from and what exactly goes into producing it. Sure, there are lots of opinions, and some of them even contain facts. But not always. And it seems that some things are left out of the discussion. Among them are:
- What exactly is a family farm?
- What exactly is big agribusiness?
- Who are these farmers?
- And perhaps the most important question for our purposes today: Without farmers, how could we possibly feed the 7 billion people on the planet today? Let alone the additional 2.5 billion additional people we expect to have on the earth by 2050.
Not everybody will agree on the answers. But it’s time to have the conversation. We believe that an important part of that conversation, however (and one that is often missing), should be an accurate portrayal of the American farmer and the role of the entire industry in feeding, clothing and fueling the world.
That’s what we’ll do today here on AgWeb. Farm Journal editors have spread out across the country in recent weeks to capture some of the typical goings-on in farming, ranching and this industry we call agriculture.
Throughout the day, we’ll post our reports from across the country. But we want you to join in as well. Send us your photos, videos or a quick e-mail to tell how your small corner of the world plays a big part in agriculture.
Today we will show the land, the industry and, most importantly, the 22 million people who play a major part in American agriculture.
