National Farm-City Week, 1995

Proclamation 6851 of November 15, 1995

National Farm-City Week, 1995

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

When America was a new country, farms were many and
small. Farmers and their families used most of what
they produced, and the rest was usually sold locally.
Even in 1862, when Abraham Lincoln created the
Department of Agriculture, 60 percent of our labor
force gained their livelihood on the farm.

Today, while less than 2 percent of American workers
are actually employed on farms, thanks to new
approaches and advanced technologies, our farmers feed
not only the people of the United States, but also much
of the world. Agriculture remains our Nation's number
one industry, generating $1 trillion in economic
activity every year--over 15 percent of our gross
domestic product--and it is our largest employer,
providing 21 million jobs.

This prosperity is due in large part to farm-city
partnerships. From the sowing of crops to the
purchasing of food and fiber in urban supermarkets, a
network of farmers, agribusiness industries, carriers
and shippers, scientists, retail distributors, and
consumers has cooperated to ensure that our food supply
is safe, affordable, and nutritious. As we gather with
family and friends during this special week, let us
give thanks for the blessings of our lives, for
America's agricultural richness, and for the
collaboration among rural and urban communities that
makes so much of this bounty possible.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in my by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim November 17 through November
23, 1995, as National Farm-City Week. I call upon
citizens in urban, suburban, and rural areas throughout
the Nation to acknowledge the achievements of those who
work together to promote America's agricultural
abundance.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twentieth.