Editor:

What a difference a year makes. This time last year agriculture was struggling from one of the wettest years on record. The untimeliness of the rains caused many producers to lose up to 70% of their expected harvest. It made for tough conditions in the farm community. Trying to get production loans financed and attempting to make arrangements to plant another crop proved extremely stressful. Nonetheless, the ingenuity and initiative of those individuals who produce our food and fiber prevailed. This is going to be perhaps one of the better years as far as yields and total gross revenue from a farm.

While farmers have struggled this year and while agriculture disaster assistance of any significance in one of the worst disaster years never came through, farmers have made it through and have provided a bountiful harvest for us all to enjoy on Thanksgiving Day. Not only will Thanksgiving Day be filled with an abundance of various choices for our taste buds, but our food security for the next year is assured because God smiled on agriculture this year and allowed us to do what we do best. That is produce in the most bountiful way that no other nation has ever experienced.

As we gather around our Thanksgiving tables this year, I hope that everyone will be mindful that the food on your table does not just appear on the grocery shelf. It is there because of a lot of research by our land grant universities and entrepreneurship by the farming community causes it to happen. May we thank God not just for the freedoms we enjoy in this nation but may we thank Him for the fact that, as a nation, we still have choices. I am proud to say that our agriculture community is still able to provide the domestic food source for every American. Our challenge remains, though, to be sure as a nation that we never, ever sacrifice the ability we have to be able to feed, clothe, shelter, and continue to increase the energy supply that we use as an industrial nation.

May God continue to bless those individuals who produce those things that are absolutely essential to life itself. May we ever be mindful of the fact that our Creator is the Individual who caused us to have the quality of life that we enjoy in these United States. My closing thought is that never have so few produced so much for so little. My prayer for all is a happy and joyous festive season as we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.

With warmest regards,

David Waide, President