Ag Week musings

During National Ag Week, all eyes are on the farmers and ranchers who are responsible for keeping the world fed.

According to the American Farm Bureau, one U.S. farmer feeds 166 people annually in America and abroad. In the 1800s when North Dakota was first established, a farmer fed 3-5 people, most likely his family members. In 1960, one farmer could feed about 26 people.

Even though we have the world’s third largest population to feed, the United States is still the world’s largest food exporter, with the country’s exports in 2023 alone totaling just under $175 billion.

Three of the top five U.S. agricultural imports are grown/raised in North Dakota: soybeans, corn and beef.

North Dakota farmers annually produce enough wheat for 15.5 billion loaves of bread; potatoes for 171 million servings of french fries; enough milk to fill 894 million glasses; 41 million pork chops; 100 million hamburgers; and 726 million bags of sunflower seeds.

“Your food, clothing, fiber and fuel do not start in a store. Thank a farmer for their contribution to many things in your life,” writes Marlene Kouba of Regent, N.D.

Speaking of the store, a 12-pack of beer from the off-sale costs $16.99, and the farmer gets a measly 7 cents of that! A loaf of bread at the grocery costs $4.49, yet the farmer takes home just 17 cents.

Did you know that farmers and ranchers receive only 14.3 cents of every dollar that consumers spend on food at home and away from home? According to the USDA, off-farm costs, including marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing, account for more than 80 cents of every food dollar spent in the United States.

That’s partly due to the reality of our food processing and distribution systems. Even though North Dakota is a top producer of several crops (see the Ag Week feature on pages 8 and 9), the food we buy in the grocery store travels an average of 1,300 miles from the farm to our tables. The primary crops we grow here are far from the processors and the wholesalers.

That’s why it’s important to source our food locally as much as possible. When we purchase fruit and vegetables from the Sheyenne or Bowdon Farmer’s Market, meat from the local butcher shop or fresh whole milk and gouda cheese directly from the VanBedaf dairy in rural Carrington, the miles from farm to table are little to none. The only distance that milk travels is from the dairy to your home. In my case, that’s less than 20 miles.

National Ag Week is an opportunity to recognize America’s farmers not only for the amount of food, feed, fuel and fiber they produce, but also for how they produce it. Our features this week cover two methods of farming and how they each contribute: regenerative organic and conventional. With rapid advancements in technology such as aerial application by drone and growing knowledge about soil health and sustainability, farmers have a lot on their shoulders.

The CommonGround North Dakota Podcast specifically addresses questions about North Dakota agriculture with the help of real agriculture experts. Hosted by Heather Schneider, a professional chef, and Jenn Haugen, a Registered Dietician, the podcasts cover a wide range of topics relevant to agriculture. In fact, on their website at https://www.commongroundnorthdakota.com/podcast, you’ll find episodes featuring local producers such as Piet Van Bedaf and Maartje Murphy of Van Bedaf Dairy and Cows and Co. Creamery, as well as mother-daughter duo LeAnn Schaefer and Chelsey Erdmann of Rhein Valley Farms near Bremen.

Do you think growing local foods is in your future, or have interest in finding out more about the growing local foods movement here in North Dakota?

There’s an event coming up that might just be up your alley. “Fresh from North Dakota” Local Foods Conference is in Bismarck this week. The annual event is sponsored by the North Dakota Farmers Markets & Growers Association and the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.

On the schedule is the Fresh from North Dakota Social Event on Thursday, March 21 from 6-8:30 p.m.. For $30, you can experience all that North Dakota has to offer in local foods. At the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck, attendees will take in a live cooking demo by National TV chef and author Christy Rost, enjoy North Dakota local foods and appetizers prepared by Glimpse of the Prairie, and take part in games to win prizes.

Get tickets for the conference and/or the social event at https://www.ndfarmersmarkets.org/conference.

Here are a few more random things I learned about agriculture this week:

• There are 540 peanuts in a 12 ounce jar of peanut butter. (nationalpeanutboard.org)

• A whopping 40 percent of all food grown and produced in the U.S. is never eaten. (www.fb.org)

• A high-producing dairy cow can produce enough milk in one day to yield 4.8 pounds of butter, 8.7 gallons of ice cream or 10.5 pounds of cheese. (www.fb.org)

• The equipment used to harvest crops cost as much as a new home. A three-year-old John Deere S7 600 combine, the current model used to harvest corn, soybeans and cereal grains, was on sale for $399,000 on the popular online sales platform, Tractorhouse.com. Meanwhile, the asking price for a newly-constructed 2,712 sq. ft. four bedroom, three bath home in Surrey, a small community south of Minot, is the same amount on Realtor.com.

• Bees really are busy! It takes one hive of bees a massive 55,000 miles of flight and 2 million flowers to produce just one pound of honey. That’s the equivalent of traveling around the full length of the equator twice! (ffa.org)

P.S. I was disappointed to find out that this year there were no written entries into the annual Ag Day Essay Contest. Rather, all entries were submitted via video.

In the past, I’ve published the winning essay each year as part of our Ag Week coverage. So, in the spirit of recognizing youth for their contributions, I’m posting a link to where you can view the winning videos, https://www.agday.org/2024-contest-winners.