Annual celebrations mark links between farms, cities

» November 10, 2004 «

When you sit down at Thanksgiving dinner later this month, you'll be making the ultimate connection between farm and city.

Here in California, farmers and ranchers annually produce:

• 419 million pounds of turkey
• 156,000 tons of sweet potatoes
• 885,000 tons of celery
• close to 6 million tons of grapes for wine, raisins and the fresh market
• plus hundreds of other crops and commodities.

Thanksgiving also marks the culmination of National Farm-City Week, an annual celebration that takes special note of the connections between farmers and urban residents.

"As farmers and ranchers, our job is to provide consumers with the foods and other farm products that they want," California Farm Bureau Federation President Bill Pauli said. "We take pride in our ability to respond to consumers' desires."

Along with the connection between farmers and their consumers, Farm-City Week highlights the other ways that farms and urban areas depend upon each other.

For example, California farms provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for urban and suburban residents who process, transport, market and distribute agricultural products. City dwellers appreciate the working landscape offered by farms and ranches, and support California's growing number of "agri-tourism" locations that offer tours, tastings, sales and other activities.

And humans aren't the only ones to benefit from the bounty of the California harvest. Thousands of ducks, geese, fish, deer and other wildlife find food and habitat on our farms and ranches.

The Farm-City Week celebration-being held Nov. 19-25-is supported by the California Farm Bureau Federation and the state's 53 county Farm Bureaus. County Farm Bureaus organize special events and activities around California to commemorate Farm-City Week. Farm Bureau participates in the celebrations in cooperation with the National Farm-City Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing links between farm families and urban residents. For more information, visit www.farmcity.org.

Contact: Dave Kranz
Phone: 916/561-5550
news@cfbf.com

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.