The 51st National Ag Day celebration took place in Washington D.C. Tuesday with groups gathering at USDA headquarters to recognize the individuals who feed, fuel, and clothe our nation and the world.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke in particular to the young people in attendance. “Every person who wakes up in the morning and doesn’t have to grow or harvest their own food gets to do that thanks to the small percentage of our population who work the land day in and day out,” Vilsack said. “You can choose to do whatever it is you want to do with your life because we delegated the responsibility of feeding our families and ourselves.”
2024 Ag Day Vilsack remarks 15:04
Ag Day is organized by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA), which is a nonprofit organization composed of leaders in the agriculture, food and fiber communities.
ACA Chair Jenni Badding, John Deere, says the Ag Day activities target student participation. “Each year we encourage 9th through 12th graders to submit video essays and this year the theme was ‘If you could talk to a farmer for two minutes,'” said Badding. “We had over 100 applicants and we ran the videos of the top three winners as part of the USDA event.”
Learn more about Ag Day in this interview.
2024 Ag Day Jenni Badding interview 2:59
A panel of students representing four different agricultural youth organizations spoke on the topic of “Agriculture: Growing the Climate for Tomorrow.”
Shelby Bashum, Southern Illinois Univ., Agriculture Future of America
Allison Walbrecht, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, National 4H
Kanyon Huntington, Iowa State University, National FFA
Anushka Tandon, Univ. of Maryland, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS)
Other speakers at the event included American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, and Curt Blades with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.