Ron Smith 1, Senior Content Director

April 20, 2016

23 Slides

Earth Day, April 22, is not widely associated with agriculture. In fact, many self-proclaimed environmental organizations may use the day to blame farmers and ranchers for environmental crimes and for ignoring basic conservation practices.

That’s unfortunate. No one in America is more aware of the symbiotic relationships of soil, water and air than farmers and ranchers. They depend on clean water. They understand that pollution threatens plant and animal health. They know that good soil is as valuable as gold. So they conserve, they protect, they improve the resources they inherited from their elders in hopes of passing along to their offspring  resources that are even more capable of producing food and fiber and even more environmentally secure.

Applauding what agriculture does for the environment is as good a way as I can think of to recognize Earth Day. Here are a few images from Farm Press files that display some of the wonders of the earth, seen mostly from a farm perspective.  

For a history lesson on Earth Day.

About the Author(s)

Ron Smith 1

Senior Content Director, Farm Press/Farm Progress

Ron Smith has spent more than 40 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension editor at Clemson University, where he earned a Masters Degree in English in 1975. He served as associate editor for Southeast Farm Press from 1978 through 1989. In 1990, Smith helped launch Southern Turf Management Magazine and served as editor. He also helped launch two other regional Turf and Landscape publications and launched and edited Florida Grove and Vegetable Management for the Farm Press Group. Within two years of launch, the turf magazines were well-respected, award-winning publications. Ron has received numerous awards for writing and photography in both agriculture and landscape journalism. He is past president of The Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association and was chosen as the first media representative to the University of Georgia College of Agriculture Advisory Board. He was named Communicator of the Year for the Metropolitan Atlanta Agricultural Communicators Association. More recently, he was awarded the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award by the Texas Plant Protection Association. Smith also worked in public relations, specializing in media relations for agricultural companies. Ron lives with his wife Pat in Johnson City, Tenn. They have two grown children, Stacey and Nick, and three grandsons, Aaron, Hunter and Walker.

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