DE Ag and its importance as a foodshed: Guest Lecture- Ed Kee

Unexpectedly I did not know that Delaware’s Agriculture Industry supports 1/3 of the population within an 8 hour span. We should think of our Agriculture industry as a “Food Shed” for the eastern United States. Delaware is made up of 2,500 farms, 41% of Delaware’s land mass is in farmland! Although Delaware has a lot of farms, the number of farms has decreased substantially since 1950 due to the increase in housing and other businesses. All farmers rely on a budget called the Farm Bill this consists of nutrition, crop insurance, conservation, commodity support, etc. All of these elements come in to play when farming, and can make profiting difficult. There also some benefits that help profit substantially, the U.S. Crop insurance covers 62% of a farmer’s insurance while the farmer has to only pay 38% of that insurance. This helps reassure the crop grower in case anything drastically bad were to happen to their crops, that they are insured and covered! The most surprising fact that I learned was that 95% of farms are family owned! So as you can see The Delaware Agriculture Industry has a lot of Intriguing facts and information that make it one of the most productive industries not just in Delaware, but in our whole nation!

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