Monday's agriculture website - National Ag Day

National Ag Day is a day to recognize and celebrate the abundance provided by agriculture. Every year, producers, agricultural associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless other across America join together to recognize the contributions of agriculture. This year's event is March 15. The Ag Day website lists event ideas and agricultural resources to celebrate Ag Day in your own community.

The event was started by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA), an organization uniquely composed of leaders in the agriculture, food and fiber communities dedicated to increasing the public awareness of agriculture's vital role in our society. The Agriculture Council of America and the National Ag Day program was started in 1973. It is a non-profit organization the helps to support and provide education to all interested in Ag Day.

Don't forget to give #foodthanks

Food doesn’t just happen. It takes an incredible number of caring, thoughtful, hard-working individuals to provide the food for the meals we enjoy every day. From farmer to processor to truck driver to chef to retailer, millions work hard to provide our food.

Those people deserve our thanks, especially during the Thanksgiving holiday. Please remember to give #foodthanks this week on your blog, facebook pages, and twitter, especially on Wednesday, November 24.

I want to take the opportunity to personally thank each and every person for helping to provide the food myself and my family will consume for our Thanksgiving meal. I know there are a lot of hands involved and my thanks go to every one of you. Thank you for providing a safe, affordable, nutritious product. I am also proud of the small role I play in helping to bring food to the table of many families. It makes me proud to say that I help farmers take care of their animals so they can feed people.

Regardless of who produced your food or how it got to you, I hope we can agree that they all deserve our thanks. As you sit down for your Thanksgiving meal this week, please remember to give #foodthanks.


P.S. For those of you on twitter, #foodthanks is the hashtag to express your gratitude there as well.

Monday's agriculture website: Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project

The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) is today's website of interest to share with readers. ASAP helps to create and expand local food markets as a way to preserve local agricultural heritage, give everyone access to fresh, healthy, locally grown food, and a way to support local farmers. The mission of the organization is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food.

The organization takes an all inclusive approach to food and farms. In addition to promoting farmers' markets, it has a cookbook, organizes farm tours and provides nutritional education to school children. The website also provides a multitude of gardening ideas for children, in additional to kid friendly recipes and and children's literature.

Monday's agriculture website of interest: AGPROUD

Are you involved in some way with agriculture and farming? Are you "agproud"? Today's agriculture website of interest to share with readers is the Agriculture Proud site, sharing the story of all people who help produce food.

Being Agriculture Proud simply involves telling your agriculture story. The site encourages farmers to explain why are you proud to be a part of agriculture. A few key points of emphasis are:

• Be real and authentic about your passion for Agriculture
• Show the enthusiasm for your passion
• Keep it simple and to the point
• Make it a candid point of view (everything in life is not flowers and sunshine)
• Stick to your experience. You can’t defend everyone

The site is maintained by Ryan Goodman, a Texas cattleman with a desire to make agriculture's voice heard. You can find Ryan as @AR_Ranchhand on Twitter.

Monday's agriculture website of interest: FARMERS' MARKET COALITION

*For those new to this blog, every Monday, blog writer Kathy Swift shares an agricultural website of interest with readers.*

In honor of National Farmers' Market week, today's agricultural website of interest is the Farmers' Market Coalition (FMC). The mission of the FMC is “to strengthen farmers' markets for the benefit of farmers, consumers, and communities.”

The specific goals of the Farmers' Market Coalition website are:

* To serve as an information center for farmers markets.
* To be a voice for North American farmers market advocacy.
* To foster strong state and regional farmers market associations.
* To bring private and public support to the table to sustain farmers markets in the long term, for the benefit of farmers, consumers, and communities.
* To promote farmers markets to the public.
* To develop and provide educational programming and networking opportunities for farmers market managers and farmers market vendors.

The site also has a link to multiple article resources, such as food safety, farm business and marketing and funding and grants.

Monday's agriculture website of interest: LOCAL HARVEST

For those interested in visiting local food outlets, today's agricultural website of interest, Local Harvest, lists farmers' markets across the country. Local Harvest promotes organic and local food. It maintains a directory of farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources. The site also encourages people to establish direct contact with farms in their local area.

Monday's agriculture website of interest: #AGCHAT FOUNDATION

*For those new to the Cow Art and More blog, every Monday, veterinarian, jewelry artist, and gallery owner Kathy Swift shares an agricultural themed website with readers.*

I am excited to share today's agriculture related website with everyone, the Agchat Foundation. This foundation was formed to help farmers and ranchers use social media to tell their stories to the 98.5 percent of the population not engaged in the production of food, feed, fuel and fiber. I am proud to say that I have been a part of the weekly #agchat discussion group on twitter that discusses issues facing agriculture on a wide range of topics since its inception one year ago. I have made many friends as a result and feel empowered to help agriculture at more than just my local level.

I am also proud to say that I was asked and accepted a position to be on the Agchat Foundation board of directors. I am looking forward to helping farmers get their story in front of consumers. I invite everyone to view the Agchat Foundation website and join us in the conversation on twitter, Tuesday evenings, from 8 to 10 PM ET. (Follow @agchat to learn the details of the topics and how to join in.)

Monday's agriculture website of interest: SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

For those new to the Cow Art and More blog, every Monday, I focus on an agricultural website of interest for our readers.

Today's agriculture website focus in on Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. Consumers are becoming more interested in knowing how agriculture impacts and protects the environment. Since 1988, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has helped advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities through a nationwide research and education grants program. The national outreach office of the SARE program is supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It operates under cooperative agreements with the University of Maryland and the University of Vermont to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture.