National Agriculture Day

Today is National Agriculture Day which is celebrated every year on the first day of Spring!! Today we need to recognize and celebrate American Agriculture! As Americans we are so blessed to have an abundance of food and fiber and have the lowest food costs in the world.

I am thankful for farmers like my grandparents Travis & Louise Pittman and John David's grandparents Cecil & Kitty Boreing! My grandparents have a diversified farm in West Tennessee, when I was little they row cropped soybeans and cotton, and now raise beef cattle, goats, strawberries (there is nothing like a farm fresh strawberry!), and many other yummy foods! John David's grandparents have a beef and hay farm in East Tennessee. Tennessee is such a diverse agricultural state from row crops in West Tennessee to dairy and tobacco farms in East Tennessee.

Farm Fresh West Tennessee Strawberries

Mamaw Kitty

My sweet hubby!

We both have Agriculture degrees and met in the FFA, he was the 2004-2005 East Tennessee Vice President and I was the 2005-2006 West Tennessee Vice President! We hope to have our own farm one day (for now we are content with a large garden on our 2 acres....and maybe some chickens soon!)

John David and I after receiving our American FFA Degrees in 2007!

The FFA Creed

I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds -achievements won by the present and past generations of agriculturists; in the promise of better days through better ways, even as the better things we now enjoy have come to us from the struggles of former years.

I believe that to live and work on a good farm, or to be engaged in other agricultural pursuits, is pleasant as well as challenging; for I know the joys and discomforts of agricultural life and hold an inborn fondness for those associations which, even in hours of discouragement, I cannot deny.

I believe in leadership from ourselves and respect from others. I believe in my own ability to work efficiently and think clearly, with such knowledge and skill as I can secure, and in the ability of progressive agriculturists to serve our own and the public interest in producing and marketing the product of our toil.

I believe in less dependence on begging and more power in bargaining; in the life abundant and enough honest wealth to help make it so--for others as well as myself; in less need for charity and more of it when needed; in being happy myself and playing square with those whose happiness depends upon me.

I believe that American agriculture can and will hold true to the best traditions of our national life and that I can exert an influence in my home and community which will stand solid for my part in that inspiring task.

-E.M. Tiffany