[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 46 (Monday, November 22, 1993)]
[Pages 2382-2383]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6624--National Farm-City Week, 1993

 November 16, 1993

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The efficiency with which a nation produces and distributes its 
agricultural products largely determines the vitality, health, well-
being, and economic strength of that nation. One of our Nation's great 
strengths is the tremendous productivity of its agricultural sector. The 
food and fiber that grow on our country's farms feed us, sustain us, and 
allow our Nation to thrive.
    More than 20 million Americans--from farms to cities--are engaged in 
producing, processing, and marketing our agricultural supplies. They are 
a highly efficient team made up of farm families, people in rural 
communities, agribusiness industries, scientists, and retail 
distributors. This farm-city team is the most productive and effective 
in the world, demonstrating the strength and

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interdependence of our farms, rural areas, and cities in our economic 
system.
    This remarkable farm-city system provides our people with produce 
for the smallest portion of consumers' average disposable income of any 
Nation. As consumers, we can use the remaining, much larger portion of 
our incomes for other goods, services, education, recreation, and 
comforts. This adds greatly to our choices in life and to our well-
being, making us a more diversified, well-served people.
    In addition, this farm-city team produces enough food in surplus of 
our own needs to enable the United States to be the breadbasket of the 
world, exporting more agricultural products than any other country. Each 
$1 billion of farm exports provides an additional $1.4 billion of off-
farm economic activity and provides jobs for about 22,000 people on 
farms and in small towns and cities. Our highly competitive agricultural 
exports also provide the largest positive balance of trade of any U.S. 
industry. This, too, adds to our opportunities, our well-being, and the 
vitality of our economy.
    Our agricultural team's unmatched productivity also makes it 
possible for the United States to carry out its international role as a 
world leader. As a strong, concerned Nation, with abundant agricultural 
reserves, the United States is the world's No. 1 donor of food aid in 
response to the needs of distressed people in other nations.
    We all are indebted to the performance of the United States 
agricultural team. Each year since 1956, the Nation has set aside the 
week ending on Thanksgiving Day as ``National Farm-City Week'' to pay 
tribute to the people who put food on our tables and to give prayerful 
thanks for our individual blessings and the blessings of the United 
States of America.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week 
of November 19-25, 1993, as National Farm-City Week. I encourage all 
Americans, in rural and urban communities alike, to join in recognizing 
the accomplishments of our farmers and all those hardworking individuals 
who cooperate in producing the abundance of agricultural goods that 
strengthen and enrich the United States.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day 
of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and eighteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:03 a.m., November 18, 
1993]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 17, and it was published in the Federal Register 
on November 19.