Tomorrow at Sunday dinner, take the opportunity to celebrate National Agriculture Week.

It doesn’t really matter what you’re having.  Any meal will do.   From steaks to chicken and from lettuce to pickles, you have agriculturists to thank.  Considering the variety, quantity and affordability of food that we have available to us, National Agriculture Week is something to celebrate.

In Boone County, agriculture’s significance reaches far beyond the products on the shelves at the grocery store. The county’s 1,010 active farms are the foundation of the county’s largest industry. According to Boone’s county’s Iowa State University Extension Agriculturist, Dave Quilan, those farms grew corn on 115,000 acres and soybeans on another 110,000 last year.  County farmers also raised more than 10,000 acres if oats and other forage crops and about 2,000 acres if wheat.  The seed, fuel, equipment, fertilizer, chemical and other inputs needed to grow crops mean big business for Boone County agri-businesses. The employees of those businesses spend their paychecks at other local businesses.  A successful harvest means more money to fuel all sectors of the local economy.

There are also about 180,000 hogs and 22,000 head of cattle in Boone County, those hogs and cattle help fuel Boone County’s economy by changing low-value locally produced products (corn and soybean meal) into a high-value product (meat) that easily can be shipped and marketed around the world.

Statewide, for every person involved in agricultural production there are at least two people employed in agricultural input industries.  If that holds true in Boone County, more than 3,000 people here depend directly on agriculture for some portion of their income.

Agriculture in Boone County, like elsewhere is facing challenges.  Its political influence is shrinking at a time when clashes between rural and urban concerns occur with increasing frequency.  The industry faces environmental and economic concerns.

But there is reason for optimism too.  Researchers are finding new ways to grow crops and raise livestock that are more economically and environmentally sound than ever before.  New markets are opening.  Local crops of corn and soybeans are finding their way into an amazing array of products.  More and more printing is done with soybean ink.  Your soda is probably sweetened with a corn sweetener.  That degradable garbage bag in your kitchen is probably made from corn starch.  In years to come, both corn and soybeans will be used in more food and non-food products.  A host of foods and non-food products.  A host of food and industrial products are being developed in laboratories across the nation.

And it all starts right here on Boone County’s fertile soil.  Now that’s something to celebrate.

And speakijng of celebrations, the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting its annual Agriculture Appreciation Breakfast on Thursday.  The doors to the Community Building at the Boone county Fairgrounds open at 6 p.m.  Until 8 a.m. You can have the best omelet in town for a $1 donation.  Lee King, long-time WHO-radio farm broadcaster, will be on hand greeting listeners and taping interviews.