[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 48 (Monday, December 1, 1997)]
[Pages 1886-1887]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7053--National Farm-City Week, 1997

November 21, 1997

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    When Americans sit down to a meal each day, we sometimes take for 
granted the quality and variety of the food we eat. Our grocery stores, 
supermarkets, and restaurants offer us an enormous volume and selection 
of fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products, and other food items, but 
we too often forget the hardworking men and women whose skill and effort 
put that food on our tables.
    Strengthening our economy and providing food for people around the 
world, American agriculture is a leading global industry and a source of 
pride for our Nation. While producing an abundance of safe and 
affordable food and fiber, America's farmers and ranchers also provide a 
rich source of jobs in the United States. American agriculture employs 
more than 21 million people today, and agriculture-related industries 
continue to expand, pumping a trillion dollars into the American economy 
each year.
    During the earliest days of our Nation, most of the crops farmers 
grew were used to feed their families or local consumers. Today, through 
advances in technology and marketing and through partnerships with 
agribusiness industries, research scientists, carriers, shippers, and 
retail distributors, America's farmers produce enough food and fiber to 
help meet the needs of people around the globe.
    This week, as Americans gather with family and friends around the 
dinner table to give thanks for their many blessings, it is fitting that 
we count amount those blessings the vital farm-city partnerships that 
have done so much to improve the quality of our lives. Rural and urban 
communities, working together to make the most of America's rich 
agricultural resources, continue to contribute immensely to the health 
and well-being of our people and to the vigor of our national economy.
    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 November 
21 through November 27, 1997, as National Farm-City Week. I call upon 
citizens in urban and rural areas throughout the Nation to acknowledge 
and celebrate the achievements of all those who, working together, 
produce an abundance of agricultural products that strengthen and enrich 
our country.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first 
day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:55 a.m., November 24, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
November 25. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.

[[Page 1887]]