National Agriculture Day

March 19, 2013 | By TONY FRANCOIS

A friend once explained the importance of agriculture to me in a way I have never forgotten:  “Every last physical thing that you use in life, was originally either grown from the ground or dug out of it.”  Ponder that for a moment (and yes, the seas and rivers are included).

Today, March 19, is National Agriculture Day.  At PLF, we are constantly reminded of the challenges that America’s farmers, ranchers, timber growers, and acquaculturists face from environmental regulation and the erosion of property rights, especially water rights.  We hear about these injustices every day, and we rescue liberty wherever we can.  In a culture where fewer and fewer citizens understand what goes into growing crops and raising animals, farmers become more frequent targets for unjust regulation.

So check out the National Ag Day website, and get some ideas there about how you might increase your understanding of the importance of farming for our culture, and how you might spread that knowledge.  American farmers lead the worldwide green revolution, whose advances in agricultural technology are providing better nutrition to more people all the time.  Some still insist on sulking in the Malthusian fallacy that the world will never have enough resources to feed its people.  But in many ways, our farmers’s accomplishments tell the skeptics to stop whining and to do something useful.