Food for the Festivities

The holiday season are here! These celebrations often involve time with family, friends and food. For most of us, food plays a significant role in our celebrations. Food may also even be part of a tradition, like that famous fruit cake recipe passed down through my mother's family. Even in challenging economic times, most of us will have more than enough food for our holiday celebrations. So, during the hectic pace of the season, I challenge you to take a moment and think about how fortunate we are to be served by farmers and others in agriculture who assure us nutritious foods. Whether it is getting out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to go milk cows, or spending seemingly endless hours in the field growing crops for human or animal consumption, Pennsylvania agriculture has a diverse workforce of farmers all unified by one common goal: producing high quality food for those living in the state and around the world.

Pennsylvania is also home to a wide variety of agricultural products. Our state's number one product is dairy, with product valued at over two trillion dollars. The next most valuable agriculture product is cattle and calves followed by mushrooms, corn and greenhouse/nursery products (USDA ERS 2007). Chester County, in Southeastern Pennsylvania, produces over 50% of all the fresh mushrooms grown in the United States. White button, shitake and oyster mushrooms are all produced by Pennsylvania mushroom growers. Pennsylvania agriculture will be well represented on your holiday table from the butter used in those delicious cookies, to the corn that fed the turkey, and the mushrooms in the hors d'oeuvres and salad.

So over this holiday season take a moment to appreciate the local farmers in your community. If you know them, thank them. If they make their food production available for retail sale on their farm, support them with your purchases. But most of all take a moment to think of how much time, effort and love went into preparing your holiday treats before they even reached your kitchen.