Celebrate Earth Day!

Today, we are celebrating Earth Day for the 40th consecutive year. My family will join more than 800,000 farmers and ranchers in celebrating this day like we do every other, by raising food responsibly to feed the world.

Farmers and ranchers represent America’s first environmentalists. They are charged with the responsibility of using the earth’s limited resources wisely. For many farm families, they have been doing exactly this for generations that go back to the founding of our country.

I encourage you to take a short drive out to the country--maybe take a walk on a dirt road--during Earth Day to appreciate what area food producers are doing to preserve the earth.

In the last 10 years, my family has spent thousands of dollars installing waterways, terraces and buffer strips to reduce soil erosion. We have helped countless Kansas producers adopt no-till planting practices for corn, grain sorghum and wheat. At harvest time, we’ll leave some grazing strips for wildlife. Lastly, we have improved our fencing and pasture techniques with our cattle to improve the water quality of our streams and ponds.

Most people probably wouldn’t notice these subtleties, but they were a cost our family was happy to absorb because it’s the right thing to do.

The great thing is that we weren’t the only ones making these improvements. They are happening across the country. Even on campus at Kansas State University, there are thousands of students preparing for careers in agriculture, purely focused on producing food in safe and responsible manner.

So, when you sit down and enjoy a meal tonight, take a moment to think about the food you are eating and how America’s farmers and ranchers are producing higher quality food using earth-friendly production practices.