Happy Independence Day! Among Others, You Can Thank 9 Farmers

I will first give credit to President Bob Stallman of the American Farm Bureau Federation for the inspiration to draft this blog post today.  Last week Mr. Stallman posted a commentary on Agprofessional.com, Agriculture’s Time in the Sun. 

With good social media form, I felt his article was well stated and relevant so I shared it with my network.  The commentary was received with several comments from those in and outside of agriculture.   The response only reinforced  to me that since we all like to eat three or more times a day, no one is “outside of agriculture”.  We are all dependent on agriculture several times a day to be healthy and enjoy the quality of life we are all afforded here in the United States.

It is clearly relevant to consider this fact on the day of our Nation’s independence; because the courage it took for people to envision what a democratic republic could look like is a similar courage farmers and ranchers demonstrate each day as they work to grow food.  In fact, nine of the fifty six patriots that signed the Declaration of Independence were farmers that owned sizable plantations.  Our sustainability as a Nation, as well as our security, rests with our ability to provide for ourselves and the communities we live in.

To build on Mr. Stallman’s commentary, I also believe the strength and success the people of our country have accomplished is connected with our ability to produce and distribute food.  It is worth a minute of your time over this Independence Day holiday to consider this connection,  as I think we can all be thankful for both the Stars and Stripes flying on the front porch and the burgers, sweet corn, and fresh tomatoes on the back patio.

Happy Independence Day!