It certainly seems like there is a day, week, month or year to honor or promote a person, cause, disease, or group. In case you missed it, just recently was “Take a Nap Day.” This past week was the annual recognition of agriculture and the people producing food fiber and fuel. There was an insert in the Tribune, various social media events, Congressman posed with appropriate groups, and various agriculture groups visited everything from schools and grocery stores to Congress. Even in a rural city like Great Bend, agriculture was trying to get the word out about what they do and why it matters to everyone. Have you ever asked why all the fuss?
• Less than three percent of our population is directly involved in producing food, fiber, and fuel. However, depending on who determines it, 15 to 20% of the population obtains their livelihood through some aspect of agriculture, even if they don’t realize it. Contrast this with over half the population involved in agriculture at the end of the 19th Century. This small group of people allows everyone else to pursue other careers. And because so few people provide food for so many, our modern way of life was made possible since the manpower and time was available for technological advancements.  
• Because of their efficiency in producing our food, the public spends a much smaller percentage of their income on food than most of the world which allows us to devote more of our income on everything from nice homes and cars to vacations and other leisure pursuits.
• Since our country has a safe, dependable, abundant food supply we have a stable society. After the turmoil of the Great Depression, the Federal government in cooperation with agriculture worked to develop a stable, abundant, cheap food supply. When you look at much of the unrest in many parts of the world, it often hinges on a lack of food and/or food essentially taking upwards of 90% of personal income.
So why does agriculture spend so much time promoting itself. Much of the country’s population, even in an area like Barton County, is disconnected from their food supply. That might not be such a big deal, except there is a great deal of misinformation about what agriculture does and why. An uneducated populace isn’t able to discern truth from fiction.