UT Ag Vice President Said We Need To Renew Focus On Farming

The Senior Vice President for the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture told local residents Tuesday agriculture is more than a rural thing.

Keith Carver spoke as part of Farm City Week, hosted by the Cookeville Rotary Club and Putnam County UT Extension Service. Carver said there is an important relationship between agriculture, the suburbs and the inner city.

“We’ve got to get out into the suburbs and help our suburbs and help our families out there realize the importance of agriculture to sustaining a good quality way of life,” Carver said. “We’ve got to work with out inner cities. We’ve got to make sure our inner cities know where the food comes from and how they can be a part of it.”

Carver said it was important to the state’s future to get youth involved in agriculture. He said this would create future leaders.

“When we think about agriculture so many people think about sows, cows and plows, right?” Carver said. “That’s universally what we think about or the world thinks about agriculture. Really agriculture we need it and we need organizations like Rotary and we need organizations like our Extension Office, we need organizations like Tennessee Tech and our legislator in congress to work together.”

Putnam UT Extension Agent Wayne Key hosted the event. Tennessee Tech President Philip Oldham, County Mayor Randy Porter and U.S. Representative John Rose attended the event.

“Young men and young women getting engaged in those areas that we know can help develop solutions for the future, for our food supply and for our food quality. It’s all about agriculture,” Carver said. “It’s going to take all of us to make a difference in our community.”

Farm City Week runs through November 24 and celebrates the agricultural partnership between rural and urban communities.