Ag Day & Getting Ready for Spring

Ag Day & Getting Ready for Spring plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

This is Ag week and tomorrow is Ag Day. It’s a time for people to think about what agriculture means to them according to Annette Degnan, spokesperson for Ag Day.

DEGNAN: The purpose of Ag Day is it provides an annual spotlight for our industry to help consumers better understand how food, fiber and fuel are produced and really it celebrates the accomplishments of U.S. producers in providing safe, abundant and affordable food and related products.

The question has been going around about what happened to winter. And indeed in a lot of places the winter was extremely mild. So much so that a lot of people are now looking forward to an early spring. Several weather models show that the La Nina weather pattern that dominated 2011 may be slowly weakening as this year progresses. What will that bring? No one knows for sure but forecasters are checking historical charts and seeing what might be in store for areas that were hard hit with high heat and flooding last year. One thing is sure, the official first day of spring is just 2 weeks from today.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Remember when Yahoo released an article saying that degrees in agriculture were useless? The fallout from that was reportedly immense, and for good reason. For most states, agriculture is the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy. The ag industry is constantly changing, evolving, and improving, which is exactly what makes agriculture degrees attractive to serious students who are looking for challenging careers with plenty of opportunity. Unlike other career choices that come and go with the changing times, jobs in agriculture will not be going away. A growing world population that needs to be fed goes a long way in assuring job security for those in the ag industry. Graduates with agriculture degrees continue to be in high demand. And contrary to popular misconception, those in the ag industry are not just a “bunch of hicks”. The agriculture industry of today has some of the greatest minds and accomplished professionals of any business. Agriculture will continue to be a growing field with millions of jobs involved; from the input sector, to the production sector, to the manufacturer sector.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.