Tennessee Proclaims 20th March "Ag Day"

In support of Agriculture, 20th March is now officially known as "Ag Day" in Tennessee.

The over 79,000 farms in the state bring in over US$3 billion annually in cash receipts.There are currently more than 600 agritourism venues in Tennessee, USA. In 2007, agritourism generated more than $6.5 million in farm income, as reported by the government of Tennessee.

The proclamation of "Ag Day" recognizes the contribution that stakeholders in agriculture have made to Tennessee.

Follow the Quilt Trail in Northeast Tennessee

Six counties in Northeast Tennessee, including Greene, Carter, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington Counties have joined together to create the "Quilt Trail" reports the Greenville Sun. The Appalachian Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council's Quilt Trail is shown inside a colourful brochure on a map. Along the trail are barns and other structures with replicas of large quilts. The brochure shows photos of each quilt square and, for the more "technologically-savvy tourist, the brochure includes Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates for the quilt locations."

In interviews with the coordinator of the Appalachian RC&D and Director of Tourism for the Green County Partnership, the Greenville Sun reports that "the Quilt Trail helps tourists enjoy country scenery while protecting family farms by boosting agri-tourism" and ""With the increasing popularity of outdoor recreation and agri-tourism, the Quilt Trail is but another tool that tourism can use to promote our area as a vacation destination as well as promote agri-tourism businesses.