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HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!
Before I begin this blog, here are some fun facts about the 4th of July:
2.5 million
In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation.
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 <http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/HistoricalStatisticsoftheUnitedStates1789-1945.pdf>
313.9 million
The nation's estimated population on this July Fourth.
Source: Population clock http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
Almost 1 in 3
The chance that the hot dogs and pork sausages consumed on the Fourth of July originated in Iowa. The Hawkeye State was home to 19.7 million hogs and pigs on March 1, 2012. This estimate represents almost one-third of the nation's estimated total. North Carolina (8.6 million) and Minnesota (7.6 million) were also homes to large numbers of pigs.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, <http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/HogsPigs/HogsPigs-03-30-2012.pdf>
7.2 billion pounds
Total production of cattle and calves in Texas in 2011. Chances are good that the beef hot dogs, steaks and burgers on your backyard grill came from the Lone Star State, which accounted for about one-sixth of the nation's total production. And if the beef did not come from Texas, it very well may have come from Nebraska (4.6 billion pounds) or Kansas (4.0 billion pounds).
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service <http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/MeatAnimPr/MeatAnimPr-04-26-2012.pdf>
6
Number of states in which the value of broiler chicken production was estimated at $1 billion or greater between December 2010 and November 2011. There is a good chance that one of these states — Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi or Texas — is the source of your barbecued chicken.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service <http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/PoulProdVa/PoulProdVa-04-26-2012.pdf>
Please Pass the Potato
Potato salad and potato chips are popular food items at Fourth of July barbecues. Approximately half of the nation's spuds were produced in Idaho or Washington state in 2011.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service <http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/CropProdSu/CropProdSu-01-12-2012.pdf>
The Fourth of July is more than just the nation's birthday. It is the countless number of friends and family, the perfect weather, the backyard barbeques, and the brilliant fireworks that light up the night sky. No other holiday makes people feel the same as they do on the Fourth of July. It is a great day to catch up with old friends and the perfect time to meet new ones. Seeing loved ones on the Fourth of July only adds to the excitement felt on this holiday.
We gather together on this one day with family, friends and neighbors and celebrate. We put everything aside on this day and we celebrate freedom. We cluster in community street and sit on other people’s lawns and take in the local community parades and at the end of the night, gaze up at the night sky and see “bombs bursting in air” and claim, for ourselves the collective proof that the flag was there and it will always be standing strong.
This was never so clear to me until I attended my grandfathers funeral. Two army officers removed the American flag from his casket and carefully folded it 13 times. The sound of taps filled the air and one of the officers saluted the other and carefully put the flag in the grave with my grandfather. My grandfather and the men he served with were true heroes, they were barely men when they enlisted, but they protected their country and their freedoms
In that moment, I saw America in a new light, a notion worth fighting for; nation worth dying for; a nation worth living for. Take a moment to be thankful for all that you have, and where you live. “For the land of the free and the home of the brave”
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