Ag Day

Ag Day

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Last Thursday the Idaho State Department of Agriculture celebrated National Ag Day in the 100 year anniversary of the department. As ISDA director Celia Gould and agency staff hosted an agricultural display on the front steps of the Capitol highlighting the tremendous productivity of Idaho producers. I asked ISDA spokesperson Chanel Tewalt to explain all of that Idaho Ag pride.

"Well it's easy to do. In Idaho we wanted to celebrate by really highlighting our producers their productivity and how they truly feed the world. So to put that in perspective in 1940 the average farmer supplied about 15 people. What we're gonna do is show how many people a farmer feeds today and it's 165 people which is just phenomenal. So the average American farmers feed 165 people every year. Is that a national average by the way?

Yes it is a national average. It certainly holds true for Idaho. You're going to see probably a little bit different mix of commodities. Basically what we're good at for instance the average Idaho and if we eat everything that was produced in our state and we had to consume it within our borders every person in Idaho would have to 43 potatoes every day. So that kind of goes to that point of productivity... it's tremendous."

43 potatoes a day is a little over the top but it is tremendous.

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