Are you hungry? Do you live in a nice home? Do you have clothes on your back? Do you drive a car?
Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives we don’t stop and think about what our world would be like if we didn’t have agriculture. Could we live without it?
As the daughter of a full time farmer, every part of my life has revolved around agriculture. My family is solely supported by it, therefore it has always been very important to me. If you stop and think about it, agriculture should be important to all of us. From the tires on our cars, to the houses that we live in, the clothes on our backs to the food on our tables—we all owe a big thank-you to a farmer somewhere. Almost everything revolves around agriculture.
Everyone needs to be educated on the importance of agriculture and how it will impact the rest of our lives. Children need to know where milk comes from, that it’s not from a store but from a dairy cow. Bacon and eggs aren’t just something that you always find on grocery store shelves, they come from someone’s farm. Agriculture is so much more today than just the family farm.
In 1950, a Georgia farmer could feed about 27 people; in 2012 one farmer feeds more than 155 people and does so on less land. Education and technology have enabled farmers to increase yields and be more efficient.
Georgia’s top 5 crops in order of ranking are:
Broiler Chickens- on an average day Georgia produces 23 million pounds of chicken.
Cotton- Georgia ranks 3rd nationally in cotton production, adding more than 1 billion dollars to the state’s economy each year.
Forestry- of Georgia’s 36.8 million acres, 66% is forested.
Peanuts-2.2 Billion pounds of peanuts are produced in Georgia each year. This is almost half of all the peanuts produced in the United States in one year.
Beef- there are more than 1 million beef cattle in the state of Georgia with operations existing in all 156 counties.
Although Georgia is called, “The Peach State”, it actually ranks 3rd behind California and South Carolina in Peach production.
Georgia’s horticulture industry employs more than 40 thousand Georgians, 1 out of 7 Georgians works in an agricultural field.
Agriculture contributes more than 57 billion dollars annually to Georgia’s economy; it truly touches us all in our everyday lives.
Back to my original questions: Are you hungry? Do you live in a nice home? Do you have clothes on your back? Do you drive a car? Because of the Agriculture industry we are not hungry, we do live in nice homes, we have clothes we can wear and have vehicles we can drive. Agriculture, could you live without it? The answer is No! None of us could. The next time you get the chance thank a farmer!
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