Observing National Ag Day on Ag Proud

Today’s featured Bandita is Janice AKA JPLovesCotton, a city girl who loves cotton and biotechnology. Her work at Monsanto includes blogging and social media outreach. A colorful adventure is her personal blog. Follow her on Twitter (@JPLovesCotton).

It seems every industry and every special interest have a day on the calendar. You see tweets, Facebook and blog posts about national _____ day all the time. Shining the spotlight on various parts of America is something we have gotten used to.

While lots of them really deserve significant attention, I can’t help but think some of those national days of observance are really marketing efforts. To me, National Agriculture Day is definitely not marketing hype.

It is an opportunity. An opportunity for two different groups.

• For the vast majority of Americans, Ag Day is a chance to remember the role agriculture plays in our lives.
• For farmers, ranchers and others of us who work in agriculture to put a stake in the ground and remind ourselves how we need to be engaging with others so they understand what the minority does and the impacts we have, commitments we make and interest we have in dialog.

During the month of March, friends of Agriculture Proud are invited to write their Ag Day story and submit it to us. We already have several who are interested in writing about their typical day in agriculture, others who want to shine a light on efforts surrounding Ag Day in their communities, etc.

This is going to be fun! If you want to join, leave a comment here connecting your email address to it and we will let you know how to proceed. I know I can’t wait to write my post for the series!

This March marks the start of 4 years for the Agriculture Proud blog. For the past 3 years, the blog has challenged readers to consider and share their thoughts on why they are proud to be a part of the Agriculture community.

In 2012, a month-long series featured folks from across the country highlighting the diversity of the Agriculture community. A summary of the posts can be found here.