How to celebrate America’s National Agriculture Day
Every November we celebrate Thanksgiving to praise what pioneering American families felt when they first starting farming the land. The holiday is a great time to get together and feast on what our land offers, but our nation’s National Agriculture Day, today March 20, is worthy for making its mark on our lives in a practical way.
According to the Agriculture Council of America each American farmer feeds more than 165 people. This has been a dramatic increase from 25 people in the 1960s. American agriculture, if we want to toot our horn, is doing more — and doing it better. But we aren’t just raising a banner here at FLUX. We know that bigger harvests also require more pesticides, fertilizer and practices that may not be compatible with what Planet Earth needs.
How can we listen to soil, plants, ecosystems and the needs of our bodies better?
National Agriculture Day was made to recognize and celebrate the abundance provided by agriculture. Every year, producers, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless others across America join together to recognize the contributions of agriculture.
Even if you are not one of or part of these organizations it’s a perfect time of the year –– the birds are singing, the snow is melting, new buds are coming out on the trees –– to start planting and listening a little better to the agricultural cycles that sustain us.
The Agriculture Council of America hosts the campaign on a national level, and they give some guidelines on how to celebrate the day and week of festivities. Their National Ag Day program encourages every American to:
- Understand how food and fiber products are produced.
- Value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy.
- Appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant and affordable products.
We can do it better!
We say it’s high time to celebrate agriculture in a fresh way. Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few people truly understand this contribution. This is particularly the case in our schools, where kids are still shocked to find out that strawberries do not really come from the supermarket.
We believe that small changes in awareness and behavior can get us connected better to our land, the way it used to be for pioneers. When we see the land as gifting us with its fruit and vegetables, we will treat this gift differently than if it were just bought at a store. That’s why we believe every family should start planting, at least a little something. Tips below.
But we of course cannot forget the men and women, the homesteaders, established and new, that are working tirelessly to feed us. And it’s not always a profitable business: American farmers do rely on subsidies and quotas to make ends meet.
One of the visions we have at FLUX is to create a network of tools and braintrust so that farmers and ranchers can do their jobs better, whether it’s more efficient application of pesticides, or more effective and profitable ways to graze and manage the herd. Our hardware MICO can do that by tapping into small currents of signals that land, plants and animals emit, and applying that data to results.
But even if you are not a cattle rancher you can do a lot with a little.
Some tips to start connecting to agriculture:
- Get planting. Buy some seeds at a local garden store and start your seedlings. Beans and rocket are super easy to grow and you will see easy results fast in the spring.
- Go visit a community garden. Cities all over the United States offer plots of land for urbanites. Even if you don’t own one yet, many of them host small events and get togethers, where children can run freely and adults can hang out and talk about the things that matter while tilling the soil.
3. Start a small greenhouse on your roof, using potted soil or a hydroponic system if you are more daring. See Karin’s garden above built with an igloo tent and a couple of hydroponic systems easily found in hydro shops near you.
