A Golden Opportunity
to Say Thanks
.jpg)
The year was 1973. The Sears Tower in Chicago was completed as the world’s tallest building. “The Godfather” won Best Picture, “The Young and the Restless” debuted on television, and Secretariat won the Triple Crown, becoming one of only 13 horses in history to achieve that honor.
In the half century since, much has changed. The Sears Tower
is no longer the world’s tallest building, and it’s now called the Willis
Tower. Other horses have won the Triple Crown, other movies have won Best
Picture – but “The Young and the Restless” is still cranking out new shows on CBS.
Of greater importance to me, in 1973, my dad was a junior in
high school, already farming corn and soybeans with my grandpa and raising
hogs. Much has changed for him as well, but not his life’s work. As the senior
generation now on our family farm, he still wakes up every day with a purpose
and a passion for producing food, feed, and fuel for America and beyond.
Those of us who work in agriculture understand that what we
have is not only a profession, but truly a lifestyle. The old advice to “choose
a job you love and you never have to work a day in your life” could have been
written about our industry, because the long hours, dirty jobs, uncertain
finances, and reliance on so many things out of our control probably seem
foolish to the 90% of Americans who don’t farm or work to support the industry
– but for us, we couldn’t imagine any other life.
1973 also saw the first celebration of National Ag Day, an
opportunity to help bring the importance of agriculture forward to millions who
may not realize where their groceries and clothing actually come from. The
opportunity to educate and share agriculture’s message on the national stage
for 50 years has no doubt influenced generations past, present, and future.
The theme “Growing a Climate for Tomorrow” couldn’t be more
fitting as change continues to move our industry forward. Technology not even
invented in 1973 is now standard use, and companies are continuing to innovate
to make farming more productive and profitable, to sustain a growing world
population. For example, GROWMARK, the company I work for, has created a
partnership called Cooperative Ventures to vet start-ups in the ag space, and
we’ve already funded several exciting businesses that have great potential.
As we celebrate the golden anniversary of National Ag Day, I
hope we each take the golden opportunity to say thank you to the famers who are
hands-on with their crops and livestock, those who work in the ag industry to
support them, and to the dreamers who will continue to push agriculture forward
in the years to come.
