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Celebration of Modern Ag helps highlight sustainable food production
The Celebration of Modern Agriculture on National Ag Day created an opportunity to connect policy makers and consumers with the role farmers play in today’s sustainable food production.
Association of Equipment Manufacturers Senior Vice President Curt Blades tells Brownfield tractors, combines, and sprayers were parked on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
“I’m talking to you from the National Mall in Washington D.C. where we have more than 30 displays of equipment manufacturers and organizations in agriculture telling the modern agriculture story where innovation enables sustainability to anyone that’s walking by,” he says. “Whether it’s a regulator or policy maker or the general public, we’re opening their eyes, to how farmers are absolutely part of the solution to address some of those sustainability challenges that our world is facing.”
He says it helps highlight the latest technology and equipment in agriculture.
“It’s been really fun having conversations with people that have maybe never seen a tractor before or certainly haven’t been on a farm or maybe they haven’t seen a modern tractor in the past 5-10 years,” he says. “To be able to lift the hood and show how much technology there is has been great. For example, John Deere is here with the new See and Spray technology. We’re able to have conversations about how the sprayer identifies weeds and sprays only those weeds. You see people’s eyes light up who had no idea this was going on. Same way with showing off a combine, a tractor, forage harvester, or robotic milking. We’re having really interesting conversations with folks that I think will make a difference for years to come with our industry.”
Blades says modern equipment helps manufacturers, farmers, and ranchers sustainably provide for a growing population.
“We’re trying to demonstrate how it all works together. We’re showing some of the latest and greatest and some of the big pieces of equipment, but we also have smaller pieces of equipment. This technology scales up to a large commercial farmer and down to a smaller-scale farmer. That message is taking hold when we talk to regulators and folks who haven’t been on a farm before to understand that this new technology is making a difference for the world.
AEM hosted the inaugural event. Blades says the organization is proud to organize the event with National Ag Day, Agriculture Council of America, and other exhibitor partners.
Click here to learn more about National Ag Day. Click here to learn more about the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
Audio: Curt Blades, AEM
