Many expected clouds, even rain, during the National Agriculture Day event held at the west steps of the Sacramento Capitol Building, but instead, the sun shone brightly.
Hundreds of participants, both farmers and non-farmers spent time tasting samples of farm produce and meats, as well as learning about what farmers do to contribute to California’s agricultural success.
The event took place on March 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  Booths were set up from various groups and organizations, ranging from students of the UC Davis soil graduate group who demonstrated the filtering capacity of certain soils to the United States Customs and Border Patrol who showed off their Agriculture Products Detection dogs.
Within an hour of the event starting, various prominent members of California’s farming community, including California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary, Karen Ross, spoke to the crowd of participants. Ross spoke on the importance of focus on California’s produce and maintaining healthy, fertile soil for generations to come.
Nearly every booth was established to provide learning experiences to those who wished to learn more about the “Agri-culture” of California. Others offered free samples of foods ranging from large strawberries to samples of cooked beef.
“This [Ag Day] is very important,” Amanda Crumpacker, an Ag Day attendee, said. “I feel like people in the city don’t have an opportunity to know where their food comes from. With something like this, they can come out and explore and get to know a little bit more of the food process.”
“Adults will be informed about issues so that they can pass that information on to their children who need to know where food comes from,” Hugh Ashley, a prospective farmer and Ag Day attendee, said. “That’s really important. A lot of kids don’t understand that.”
For more information on when and where the next National Agriculture Day will be, check out agday.org.