Hello, CALS,
This week and next, campus really starts to prepare for incoming students, and many of you are enjoying the last opportunities for vacation this summer before the academic year or before getting ready to harvest. And then there’s the wonderful distraction of the Iowa State Fair!
State and county fairs in the U.S. certainly began as agricultural and community gathering enterprises and have added layer after layer of other things to celebrate, too. However, there is a need to sustain the agricultural overlay of fairs to still achieve those values. I was recently talking with someone very involved in a large county fair. They reported that over the last 20 years or so, the number of participants in, for example, showing livestock, has dropped precipitously. It is perhaps an index of what we need to be on the lookout for. If the general public is increasingly less aware of how food is produced, then the work to sustain agriculture, in all its dimensions and scales, will be more and more difficult. So, get out and enjoy the fair, and visit the agricultural displays!
Fair history dates back several thousand years with people gathering for many reasons (religious, markets, exchange of ideas), and almost always with agriculture and food as central elements, even if not until much more recently as the focus of unique educational activities. In North America, the first documented agricultural fair (still operating today) took place in 1792 and was run by the Niagara Agricultural Society in Ontario, Canada. The first formal county fair in the United States is considered to have been the agricultural fair and cattle show in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in September 1811. Then the first recognized state fair was started in 1841 in Syracuse, New York. Our great Iowa State Fair dates to 1854, according to this Historical Highlights of the Iowa State Fair publication.
Have an excellent week. - Dan
Scenes from CALS
Now is as good a time as spring to walk on campus and enjoy beautiful flowers and more!
The best view in Ames is now from the top of the soon-to-open Iowa State University Kent Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex. Last Friday afternoon, I had the pleasure to take in this view with Senior Vice President for Operations and Finance Shawn Norman, and Feed Mill Manager and Associate Director Tony Ewing.
Last week, Dermot Hayes, distinguished professor of economics, and Claudia Lemper-Manahl, associate teaching professor of plant pathology, entomology and microbiology, were just two of the many CALS RAGBRAI road warriors!
