Celebrate the people who grow our food and discover the journey from farm to table.
National Farmer’s Day is a chance to celebrate the farmers and ranchers who grow crops, raise animals, care for the land, and help put food on our tables. But farming reaches much farther than the produce aisle. From wheat in a loaf of bread to cotton in a favorite T-shirt, agriculture is woven into ordinary things we use every day.
Not all farms are fields! Farmers can raise oysters in the ocean, grow mushrooms indoors, harvest cranberries from bogs, and even grow Christmas trees.
by by Pat Brisson
Before food reaches our tables, many hands help grow, gather, prepare, and deliver it.
Before We Eat: From Farm to Table celebrates the farmers and workers behind an everyday meal, making it a perfect read for National Farmer’s Day. As you read, notice how many different jobs and steps are involved before even one meal is ready to eat.
Start with the food as close to its beginning as you can imagine. A strawberry might begin as a tiny flower. Bread could begin with wheat waving in a field. Cheese might start with cows being milked on a dairy farm. Think about what happens first, next, then, and finally—and use strong verbs to keep your food moving along its journey.
Turn your next trip to the grocery store into a mini farming adventure.
As you shop, choose a few everyday foods and trace each one back to its agricultural beginning.
Try to find:
Check produce stickers, packages, signs, and labels for clues about where foods were grown or produced.
Extra Adventure: Pick one food your family buys all the time and see how much of its journey from farm to grocery cart you can uncover together.
Every adventure has another path to follow. Choose a trail and see where your curiosity leads!
Healthy crops begin beneath our feet. Soil contains minerals, air, water, organic matter, and countless living organisms that help create the conditions plants need to grow.
Wonder Challenge: Dig a little deeper into soil horizons. How is the soil near the surface different from the layers underneath it?
Farming tools have changed dramatically—from hand tools and animal-powered plows to tractors, combines, sensors, drones, and GPS-guided equipment.
Wonder Challenge: Look up precision agriculture. How can GPS help a farmer use seeds, fertilizer, or water more precisely?
Farms aren’t the only places where people carefully manage growing plants. Silviculture is the art and science of establishing, growing, and caring for forests to support goals such as healthy habitats, timber, clean water, restoration, and recreation.
Wonder Challenge: Explore the USDA Forest Service’s explanation of silviculture. Why might a forester deliberately remove some trees to help a forest stay healthy?
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