National Agriculture Day – Together We Grow
Along with our country’s 250th birthday, we also celebrate 250 years of progress in agriculture in 2026.
National Ag Day is March 24, with the theme, “Together We Grow.”
As the world population continues to climb past 8 billion people, there is even greater demand for the food, fiber, and renewable resources produced in the United States. America’s farmers are more important now than ever before.
Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use, and wear daily, and is increasingly contributing to fuel and other bio-products. Each year, members of the agricultural industry gather together to promote American agriculture and help millions of consumers learn more about agriculture’s contributions to our daily lives.
As consumers, we sometimes take for granted the availability, price, safety, quantity, and quality of our food. Although food prices have risen in recent years, we still have some of the best food available at the best price anywhere in the world.
Consumers should also understand that food doesn’t magically appear in the grocery store. Farmers produced that food through a lot of dedication and hard work. Food handlers, processors, and truckers ensured it safely arrived in the grocery for you to select, prepare, and share with your family.
Are you looking for a meaningful career? More and more, students and individuals are finding careers in agriculture, food, or natural resources. Career choices include farm production, agribusiness management and marketing, agricultural research and engineering, food science, processing and retailing, banking, education, landscape architecture, urban planning, energy, and other fields. If you have a passion for one of these or a related area, your intellect, skills, and talent can reach their fullest potential in agriculture and its related areas. If you’re willing to work, there’s most likely a place for you. Get a head start by learning through FFA and 4-H programs.
According to the USDA Economic Research Service in 2022, 22.1 million full- and part-time jobs were related to the agricultural and food sectors—10.4 percent of total U.S. employment. Employment in agriculture- and food-related industries supported another 19.6 million jobs.
Now let’s shift our focus to Indiana.
Indiana consistently ranks among the top 10 producers of corn for grain, soybeans, peppermint, spearmint, watermelon, pumpkins, hogs, chickens, turkeys, and total eggs.
According to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (at https://www.in.gov/isda/about/about-indiana-agriculture/):
- Agriculture contributes an estimated $35.1 billion to Indiana’s economy.
- Indiana is the seventh-largest agricultural exporter in the nation, exporting $6.358 billion in 2023.
- The value of unprocessed agricultural commodities sold was $18 billion in 2022.
- The Indiana hardwoods industry has an annual economic impact of over $10 billion.
- Indiana is the ninth-largest farming state in the nation.
- 94 percent of farms are family-owned or operated.
- Indiana has 53,599 farming operations, with an average farm size of 272 acres.
- There are just over 94,000 farmers in Indiana, with an average age of 56 years old.
- There are more than 8.4 million turkeys, 4.3 million hogs, and 1.7 million ducks in Indiana.
- Indiana's farmers cultivated nearly 14.6 million acres of farmland in 2022.
- Approximately 162,000 private landowners own approximately 77% of the timberland in Indiana.
- Hoosier forests offer a sustainable and natural raw material for manufacturers. On average, Indiana's forests are growing in volume more than 1.8 times the amount being removed.
- Indiana’s hardwood industry supports 70,000 jobs -- 44,000 in primary and secondary manufacturing and 26,000 in ancillary sectors.
Learn more about Ag Day at www.agday.org.
