On National Agriculture Day, honor America’s farmers and ranchers

Tremendous credit is due to farming families and the many people in agricultural businesses and lines of work across America. At the same time, American agriculture is a prime example of how cooperation, neighborliness, and working together pay off in successes that no one individual alone could achieve.

{mosads}The success of American agriculture also demonstrates the crucial importance of sound, commonsense public policy, whether at the federal, state or local level. Consider, for example, the large beneficial impacts from the Homestead Act, or the Morrill Act establishing land grant colleges, or the federal agricultural, conservation, and rural economic initiatives begun during the Great Depression.

As we celebrate American agriculture, let us also honor our longstanding national commitment to ensuring that all American families have the ability to put food on the table and partake in our agricultural abundance.

Sen. Harkin is the senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.