On National Ag Day, thank a Yuma farmer

Industry feeds America with deep roots in Yuma County

Should you happen to run into a farmer or a fieldworker today, take a moment and tell them thank you.

After all, their efforts are an economic pillar for Yuma County, and together, they literally feed America.

Today is National Ag Day, promoted by the Agriculture Council of America to raise public awareness of agriculture’s vital role in our society, according to www.AgDay.org.

The organization has four core values, noting that every American should understand how food and fiber products are made, appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe and affordable products, value the role ag plays in maintaining a strong economy, and acknowledge the career opportunities in the industry.

These four core values are values with deep roots in the Yuma community.

Yuma residents take pride in the role that we play in agriculture, from food safety efforts to innovative water conservation methods to the efforts of our fieldworkers who harvest our crops.

Agriculture is a multi-billion dollar contributor to Yuma’s economy, providing one in four jobs to Yuma County employment. Yuma is the epicenter of the nation’s winter production of lettuce and other fresh vegetables.

In fact, there are more than a million acres of agriculture spanning from the Wellton-Mohawk Valley into Imperial Valley, and from the Blythe area down into Mexico, making the region an agricultural powerhouse.

Yuma County itself is home to a variety of crops, including alfalfa, arugula, artichoke seed, broccoli, beets, bok choy, Bermuda grass seed, blackberries, black-eyed peas, cantaloupe, chard, celery, carrots, cilantro, corn, durum wheat, dates, dill, endive, escarole, frisee, fennel, grapefruit, green onions, guayule, honeydew melons, hesperaloe, iceberg lettuce, jojoba, kale, leeks, lemons, leaf lettuce, mustard greens, mizuna, maize, napa cabbage, onion seed, olives, okra, pumpkins, pecans, pima cotton, parsley, pomegranate, quince, romaine lettuce, radicchio, rutabaga, Sudan grass, safflower, spinach, strawberries, sugar peas, tangelos, turnips, tomatoes, thyme, upland cotton, Valencia oranges, watermelon, wheat, yellow squash and zucchini squash.

It’s an amazing list, and it’s just a glimpse into all that our farmers can grow here.

Yuma doesn’t follow the trends in agriculture – our farmers set them.

Today, on National Ag Day, we celebrate their efforts and their successes at feeding America.