By Brian Hefty
Quick Facts:
- Ag PhD float theme: Salute to Farmers
- Riders: 100 farmers (this should be a record)
- Float dimensions: Approximately 18’ wide by 110’ long. This will be one of the biggest in the parade.
- Seed: There is still time to send a pound (or so) of seed from your farm and have it as part of the float. We are trying to collect seed of all different kinds from each of the 50 U.S. states. By December 20, please ship your seed to:
Artistic Entertainment Services
Attention: Kyle
120 N Aspan Ave.
Azusa, CA 91702
- Attending the parade: You can stand anywhere along the parade route for free or buy reserved seats at sharpseating.com
- Broadcast: Many networks and online providers will cover the parade, but the best views are on RFD-TV.
- Parade time: January 1 at 8 a.m. Pacific, 9 a.m. Mountain, 10 a.m. Central, 11 a.m. Eastern. Tune in earlier than that for pre-parade coverage!
We are honored to have been chosen to participate in this year’s Tournament of Roses parade. We are hoping to bring a little recognition to farmers, since we feel farmers are unsung heroes in our society. Our country has the safest, healthiest, most abundant, and cheapest food supply in the world! That’s thanks in large part to the American farmer!
When you ask a non-farmer today what they think of when someone mentions the word agriculture, you will likely hear responses with the words GMO, biotech, food safety, water quality, corporate farming, pesticides, etc. To me, that’s not at all what agriculture is about. Agriculture is about families feeding families. Almost all the farming done in the United States and around the world is by family farm operations. Our idea for the Salute to Farmers float was to not only feature some modern equipment and a grain bin, but to have 100 family farmers riding on the float! If consumers today understand it is simply hard-working American families living on the land and producing food, I think a lot of the disconnection we have with non-farmers will start to go away. If you go to agphd.com, you will see profile stories about some of the farmers we have chosen to ride with us on the float.
We want to again thank the Tournament of Roses people, Patrick Gottsch and everyone at RFD-TV and Rural Radio for making all this happen. You can not only watch the parade on RFD-TV, they (along with Rural Radio) will be featuring the Salute to Farmers float in their coverage of the parade in the month leading up to January 1.
2018 marks the 20th year on TV for Ag PhD (18 years on RFD-TV) and 5 years of Ag PhD on Rural Radio SiriusXM 147. Thank you for your support, and thank you for feeding our country and many others!