SALISBURY — This week was National Agriculture Week and to pay tribute to all those who commit their lives to growing food for people all over the state and country, the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce held its annual “Salute to Agri-business” at the “Power in Partnership” breakfast on Thursday at the West End Plaza. 

“We want to lift up all of our farmers in Rowan and thank them for providing the food on our plates everyday and thank them for their investment in our community and encourage them to continue to provide that food for us,” Chamber President Elaine Spalding said. “We like to encourage our local business leaders to continue to support our local farmers and buy local.” 

Sponsored by the town of Cleveland, the breakfast had vendors representing AgSouth Farm Credit, North Carolina Farm Bureau, Happy Roots, and NC Cooperative Extension to share information about their organizations to the over 250 people who attended. 

Breakfast was provided by West Rowan High School Career and Technical Education students, which included livermush and strawberry jelly from Patterson Farms. 

While the agriculture industry is vital for supplying crops, grain and livestock, it’s in danger of not being able to meet the demands of consumers. 

“It is the No. 1 business in the state, it’s $2.1 billion. However, the number of farms are decreasing, land’s decreasing, there’s a lot of issues. So, we just want to make sure that everyone is aware of all the challenges that farmers face as well as all of the great things that farmers do,” said Michelle Patterson, chair of the Rowan Chamber Agriculture Committee. 

The main speaker at the breakfast was MacKenna Clifton, a junior at North Carolina State University studying agricultural education, who was previously a Future Farmer of America officer while she attended West Rowan High School. 

Clifton mentioned how her two older brothers inspired her to transfer to West Rowan and try agriculture as a career and how her experiences of meeting her teachers and mentors pushed her to where she is now. 

“Whenever I speak about the future of agriculture and how it changes lives, I’m saying that because it changed my life. Agriculture has made me a better person. I am truly a product of agriculture in Rowan County,” Clifton said. 

Clifton told stories of the people she has met who work in agriculture and of her travels from South Africa all the way to Hawaii. 

“Every single time that someone mentioned the word ‘agriculture’ or being involved in agriculture, they brought up this topic of ohana. They said, ‘Welcome to our ohana. Our agriculture community.’ They wanted to make sure I understood the importance of family and community and how it was changing their agriculture community for the better,” Clifton said. 

Clifton is currently an intern at the North Carolina Chamber, where she is working on a state agricultural leads project to bring together farmers and agricultural figures to discuss the obstacles they are facing and possible solutions. 

“Conversation is the strongest tool that we can use nowadays to make sure we’re connected and explore those avenues of what agriculture looks like now and in the future,” Clifton said. 

After she graduates, Clifton wants to utilize her major by either going down the path of business, teaching or policy. Overall, she has high hopes for where local agriculture is heading. 

“One thing that I know for certain is that there are a lot of incredible individuals in North Carolina, Rowan County specifically as well, that are paving the way for agriculture to make us the number one state for agriculture on the east coast,” Clifton said.