This essay is a merit winner in the 2023 Ag Day Essay Contest.  Visit www.agday.org for more details on National Ag Day.

Libby Ramge
Marysville, Ohio

Growing a Climate for Tomorrow: How American Agriculture Does It Every Day

Our lives depend on the success of our harvests. Every living thing in this world depends on the fuel our industry is creating for them. Agriculturalists are among the nation's most caring stewards of the environment while being faced with the monstrous task of feeding the world. Over the past century, the average surface temperature has increased by almost 2°F (Effects of Global, n.d.). Temperatures aren't the only thing suffering from climate change. There is a projected increase in precipitation intensity, projected decrease in soil moisture, projected increase in dry spells and hot days. As you can imagine, these effects impede agriculture’s ability to efficiently feed the world. The climate is changing faster than the farmers, plants, and animals can adapt to it. So, as agriculturalists, every day we focus on how to be better towards the environment.

Our FFA Chapter toured MVP Dairy on the way to the National Convention. They’re a dairy farm valuing their cow’s welfare and sustainable practices. I was exploring their website and found MVP spends time evaluating their farm and creates yearly EcoReports to measure their carbon footprint. This farm is almost break-even with its emission inputs and outputs and will be there within a few years (MVP Dairy, Regenerative farming). The operators of this farm have focused attention on being carbon positive because of the passion and importance they have found in this topic. MVP is not the only farm looking to the future. Farmers all across the world are investing in efficiency. And with education and resources provided by governmental agencies, more farmers are moving towards sustainable practices.

You see agriculturalists all the time managing biodiversity, reducing erosion, building soil quality, protecting water sources, and storing carbon. And farmers aren't the only agriculturalists. There are engineers, finding ways to design sustainable equipment. There are teachers, who are teaching future generations about how they can help. And there are professional agriculturalists, who know the ins and outs of either agronomy, soil, or conservation planning. Agriculturalists also include anyone who is advocating for agriculture and a sustainable future.

Agriculturalists are among some of the proudest environmental stewards. We want a world that can sustain future generations, and it is our job to make that possible. With a sustainable environment, we can continue feeding the world, caring for the land, and educating consumers.

2023 National Ag Day Essay Contest Winners Announced

The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) has announced the 2023 National Ag Day video and written essay winners.  The winners were chosen based on the theme:  Growing a Climate for Tomorrow: How American Agriculture Does It Every Day.  Entrants chose to either write an essay or create a video.  

The national written essay winner, Timothy Hill of Orlando, Florida, receives a $1,000 prize and will read his winning essay at the virtual Ag Day event on March 21, 2023. The contest also named three merit winners who receive $100 and blog posts featuring their essays. They are Sophie Griswold of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania; Libby Ramge of Marysville, Ohio; and Elsha Valluru of Highland Village, Texas.  This year’s video essay winner, Olivia Lee of Aliso Viejo, California, wins a $1,000 prize.  The winning entries can be viewed online at https://www.agday.org/2023-contest-winners.

The Ag Day Essay Contest is sponsored by CHS Inc., National Association of Farm Broadcasting, Farm Progress and Successful Farming.

Celebrating 50 years, National Ag Day encourages every American to understand how food and fiber products are produced; appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant, and affordable products; value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy and acknowledge and consider career opportunities in the agriculture, food, and fiber industry.

Learn more and register for events at agday.org.

A Golden Opportunity to Say Thanks

Karen Jones, GROWMARK Youth and Young Producer Specialist 

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.