A place at the table

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Today I want to share a letter I recently sent to the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Institute. I am not representing any organization — but as an Illinois farmer interested in agriculture’s contribution to the history of the United States. The permanent exhibit about agriculture was removed during a recent two-year renovation of the entire museum. At the present, there is nothing about agriculture in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum.

Jan. 29, 2009

Dr. Brent D. Glass, Director

Smithsonian Institution, Museum of American History

Dr. Pete Daniel, Curator

Smithsonian Institution, Division of Work and Industry

P.O. Box 37012

Washington DC 20013-7012

Dear Dr. Glass and Dr. Daniel,

In December, I visited your recently reopened Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History. During this visit, my interest was to see how you had related the history of agriculture and its ever-changing impact on American life, since I am a family farmer in Bureau County, north central Illinois.

I was very disappointed to find that you do not have any agricultural exhibit in your Museum of American History on the National Mall. I question how you can tell America’s story without this critical aspect of our history and the recognition of agriculture, as it is critical to the well-being of our nation.

Since the very beginning of the colonization of America, farming and agriculture have been an essential part of American life. There were farmers who signed the Declaration of Independence; our first president, George Washington, considered himself a farmer, and many who followed him in office were involved with agriculture. People from other parts of the world came to our shores in hopes for a better life to settle lands and farm in the Midwest, the Plains and the West. Even the Civil War had connections to agriculture. Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation to form the Department of Agriculture and establish our Land Grant Universities. George Washington Carver, John Deere, Norman Borlaug, mechanization, the science of hybridization, and biotechnology of seeds are but a few names and events that have a rich agricultural history in America.

Agriculture is still important and relevant in our lives today. Farmers provide food, fiber, and fuel that are essential to our population. Our world is certainly changing, but we are still fed by the farmers who work many hours to provide a safe and affordable food supply. Many in our nation are generations removed from the farm, with little firsthand knowledge of food production, yet food has a major impact on our well-being as this nation faces increasing health issues of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Modem tillage methods are conserving our top soils for future generations, and modem seeds increase the food supply for the United States and provide greatly needed nutrition for the world’s undernourished. Thanks to modem techniques, farmers are able to increase production and do so in a sustainable manner while protecting the environment.

Agriculture deserves a place at your table. As a farmer, may I offer to help in any way I can to make an agricultural exhibit a reality? I have had some experience working on other agricultural exhibits at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and Lincoln Park Zoo’s “Farm at the Zoo.” The farming community and museum personnel partnered together successfully to bring these popular exhibits to reality. With your expertise and good information from the farming community, I know an exhibit could inform and delight visitors for years to come.

Sincerely,

Sharon Covert

It is my understanding that about one-half of the funding for the Smithsonian comes through congressional funding. If you agree that agriculture deserves a place in American history, please fax, call or write to those who represent you in Washington, D.C. and send a copy of your letter to Dr. Glass.

Sharon Covert is a soybean farmer near Tiskilwa.