Our Food, Our Farmers: Grades 7-9 and Overall Essay Winner

Our Food, Our Farmers Ag Essay Contest – 2011

Written Essay Winner: Grades 7-9; Overall

Casey Campbell, 9th Grader at Franklin Community High School

Teacher:  Sarah Rapp

“Food for Thought – Our Food, Our Farmers”

Let’s think for a second. This morning you most likely had breakfast. Eggs? Bacon?

Follow the paths that your breakfast took. Those eggs came from a chicken. That chicken was on a farm, run by a farmer. That crispy bacon on your plate came from a hot, which came from a hog operation. Think of the work those farmers did for you. The care, effort, and time those farmers gave to give you one meal. American farmers feed and clothe us, contribute to the economy, protect the environment, improve our health and so much more.

American farmers feed you and me. They spend countless hours of hard work, effort and time into pulling food on the table, whether it’s the farmer in Florida or the grain producer in Iowa laboring over wheat to make your birthday cake. Your shirt was one of the 1,217 shirts that came from one 500 pound cotton bale! So where would we be without American farmers? Hungry and Naked, But, American farmers do much more than that.

Farmers do more than feed us. They feed the world’s economy. Agriculture employs about 14 percent of America’s workforce and accounts for more than 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Agriculture and the economy are best friends. The crops fail, prices and demand go up. The economy goes bad, agriculture goes down with it.

If anyone protects the environment, it’s farmers. Farmers care of the land and protect it. They preserve the land by soil and water conservation. Because without the land, we couldn’t farm. They are for controlled and planned urbanization. On their farms, they increase energy efficiency. Farmers do so much to protect our planet.

Farmers improve our health by giving us a continual supply of high quality food and fibers. Farmers give us an abundance of goods to keep us healthy. They care about the quality of their products. They give us adequate nutrition we need for excellent health! Without the supply, we would no longer be here!

American agriculture plays an enormous role in my life, even if I didn’t live on a farm. Farmers keep me fed and clothed, they even improve my health. Not to mention how they protect the environment and improve the economy. So, thank you to all of Indiana’s farmers for doing what you do.