Impact of agriculture broader than money it puts in economy

Published 11:15 am Friday, March 15, 2013

Agriculture provides more than 30 percent of Kentucky’s economy, but its impact is even greater than that.

“If you eat, you are involved in agriculture,” American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman told the 400 or so people gathered this morning for the “Our Farm. Your Plate” breakfast at the National Corvette Museum.

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Stallman said the comment, borrowed from a bumper sticker two decades ago, points to the importance of agriculture.

Nationally, more than 2.1 million people are involved in farming endeavors, he said.

One of the challenges that farmers face is that people are more removed from the farm than ever, yet are even more interested in their food, where it comes from and its quality. So it’s incumbent upon farmers and ranchers to communicate with their friends and neighbors about what it is that they do, he said.

“But how do you communicate with a society that is so far removed from agriculture?” Stallman asked. “This breakfast is a step in doing that.”

The breakfast was organized by Warren County Ag Foundation, which was formed to educate young people and the community about the importance of agriculture.

Agriculture has more employees than any other single industry in the state, former state Agriculture Commissioner and Warren County farmer Billy Ray Smith said. Smith for years worked with the state FFA Foundation as its executive director to help provide opportunities for young farmers in the commonwealth.

Those young farmers could also be the key in finding ways to communicate about agriculture, at least when it comes to the ways of social media, Stallman said.

During the breakfast, participants viewed a YouTube music video shot by the Peterson brothers of Kansas. Their video “Farmer Style” was set to the much ballyhooed “Gangnam Style” song and dance video made popular by South Korean musician PSY. The audience, many of whom were seeing it for the first time, laughed at the video as the three brothers cowboyed across large, round bales of hay.

But Stallman said it was a way to bring the farm message to an audience who might not otherwise be listening.

Paul Harvey’s “God Made a Farmer” essay highlighted pictures of Warren County farm scenes. Foundation President Joe Duncan said the breakfast planning committee decided last year to use the essay, well before the Dodge truck Super Bowl commercial that also borrowed Harvey’s words.

“It gets you right here,” Stallman said, holding his heart.

Stallman said he was asked to discuss the federal Farm Bill that has yet to be authorized. Because of budget issues, he’s not sure a bill will be authorized this year.

“But you need to know the importance of it,” he said. “It’s not just about the support programs it provides to farmers. … It’s mostly about nutrition.”

The Farm Bill also authorizes funding for food and farming research that often funnels through such things agriculture extension agencies and provides for the federal crop insurance program, which some people have been critical of. But that crop insurance program is what has helped farmers going through a period of severe drought. If the drought had occurred more than 20 years ago without that support, the picture would be much different. Farmers would have gone out of business without the help, and the food supply would have been impacted even after a drought recovery, Stallman said.

“It’s an important piece of legislation,” he said. “Yes there are some dumb things in it … but the package as a whole allows the country to maintain the most productive ag industry in the world.”