This year marks the 42nd observation of Earth Day in this country, with numerous special events scheduled on April 22. It began in the spring of 1970, when I was completing my senior year of college. Individuals who first proposed and supported the original idea were the unusual group that those of my generation called “hippies.” They wanted immediate laws to protect what they called “Mother Earth,” and got involved in protecting the environment.
At that time in history, many of us thought they were just a little on the weird side and if we ignored them they would just go away. However, today the environment has become a number one concern of many and most of us. Who would have thought that those individuals driving VW vans, with strange symbols painted on the side, could get the attention of the entire world to do something to protect the environment of this planet?
This year’s theme is “Mobilize the Earth,” and from what I’m seeing in the media, mobilization of the event is underway. Nationally and worldwide, we celebrate a special day to remind everyone about the importance of protecting and conserving the water, air and soil that are so vital to each and everyone of us. There will be parades, special school projects and classes, festivals and other festivities to commemorate Earth Day. There is even an Earth Day organization that works year round with a Web page on the Internet. You can find it at www.earthday.org.
With the unusual changes in our weather this year, the opportunity has lent itself for some to use this day once again to take the stage for global warming and climate change agendas. I agree it has been a mild winter around these parts and I’m not too sure about what the summer will bring, but don’t throw away those heavy coats just yet. This is not the first time we have had unusual weather, and it probably will not be the last. Instead, use Earth Day to look at what can be done to take care of what we have in a practical manner. As I have written almost every year during this annual celebration, I support a group who will actually be doing something about it. They will not be seen marching, pretending to be green or any of those things to get media attention. Instead, they will treat the day as any other.
America and Tennessee’s farmers will view the day of April 22 just as they have each and every day since the inception of Earth Day back in 1970. With Earth Day falling on Sunday, most will attend church thanking the One who has provided the environment we use and enjoy. The following day, they will rise early, go to the fields and work from sunup to sundown to preserve the natural resources that they have been taught to conserve from past generations. They will continue to keep a low profile, just as their ancestors did, as they too took great strides toward protecting and conserving our environment. There is a great difference in talking about doing something and actually doing it. Earth Day is every day on Tennessee’s farms.
Farmers today are embracing new technology, adopting new farming methods and investing in business services to help them excel in an environmentally sensitive world. Here are just a few of the modern-day agriculture practices used by farmers to protect our Earth:
• Thanks to modern farming techniques, America’s farmers and ranchers are producing more food on fewer acres, leaving more open space for wildlife habitat. Modern farming practices free up millions of acres of wildlife habitat. Agricultural land provides habitat for 75 percent of the nation’s wildlife.
• Contour farming, planting crops around hillsides instead of up and down, keeps soil from washing away. About 26 million acres in the United States are managed this way.
• Precision farming practices boost crop yields and reduce waste by using satellite maps and computers to match seed, fertilizer and crop protection applications to local soil conditions.
• Just as urban families recycle grass, newspaper and aluminum, farm families have practiced recycling for a long time by applying manure to fields to replace nutrients in the soil.
Farmers might keep a low profile on Earth Day, but they are doing more than their fair share to help protect this planet for the future generations to come. As President John F. Kennedy once said, “Our farmers deserve praise, not condemnation; and their efficiency should be cause for gratitude, not something for which they are penalized.” This Earth Day, show your gratitude to those who keep us fed and “mobilized.”
Pettus L. Read is editor of the Tennessee Farm Bureau News and Director of Communications for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. He may be contacted by e-mail at pread@tfbf.com.