National Agriculture Week is this Week
FRESNO – National Agriculture Week takes place this week. The week recognizes and celebrates the abundance provided by agriculture.
“In Fresno County, the agriculture industry makes a significant contribution to our local economy. In 2011, agricultural production at the farm gate totaled $6.88 billion,” said Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen. “For every $1 billion in farm sales, there are 18,000 jobs created in the state. In the San Joaquin Valley, one in four jobs is directly connected to agriculture.”
Students with a California raisin at the 2012 Farm & Nutrition Day at the Fresno Fairgrounds.
Every year, producers, agricultural associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless others across the country join together to recognize the contributions of agriculture. Agriculture provides almost everything consumed, used and worn on a daily basis. In Fresno County, more than 400 crops are grown on more than 6,000 farms. Too few people truly understand this contribution.
“As the world population soars, there is an even greater demand for safe food and fiber produced in the United States,” Jacobsen said. “It’s been estimated that between the years 2010 and 2050, more food will have to be produced than all of previous mankind combined.”
On March 7, the Fresno City Council recognized National Ag Week at their meeting. Additionally, special events will take place during the week. California Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger will speak at the Rotary Club of Fresno today. He will address California agriculture’s ability to produce a diversity of valuable crops on a sustainable basis, but how it hasn’t always translated to increasing farmers’ bottom lines because of this state’s increasingly difficult political and regulatory environment.
On Wednesday, March 20, Ag Day at the Capitol will take place on the state Capitol’s west steps in Sacramento. Elected officials, their staff and the public will interact with California Agriculture Day exhibitors. In addition, the “World’s Largest School Lunch Tray” will be filled with fresh, nutritious, California grown agricultural products and then a few hundred school students will be fed right on the Capitol grounds.
To culminate the week, Fresno County Farm & Nutrition Day, a special activity for third graders to learn more about how their nutritious food is produced in Fresno County, will be held at the Fresno Fairgrounds on Friday, March 22. More than 2,000 students from throughout Fresno County are expected to participate. Fresno County Farm Bureau, The Big Fresno Fair and the Friends of the Fair cosponsor the event.
For more information about National Ag Day, contact FCFB at 559-237-0263 or info@fcfb.org or the Agriculture Council of America at 913-491-1895 or visit www.agday.org.
