Every year the Bryan College Station Chamber of Commerce hosts a breakfast to recognize the role that agriculture plays in not only our local economy, but in the national economy as well. Joe Brown has more in this week’s From The Ground Up.

"I always look forward to the ag breakfast because it gives us an opportunity to lift up the farmers and ranchers that grow and produce our food all year long. Agriculture is still extremely critical to the economy of Bryan College Station, the Brazos Valley and Brazos County, and I think a lot of people are not aware of that."

Royce Hickman is President and CEO of the Bryan College Station Chamber of Commerce.

"They're also not aware of how agricultural products impact their lives day in and day out."

And a lot of those products are produced directly or indirectly by farmers and ranchers right here in the Brazos Valley.

"All of the food that we'll eat next Tuesday morning will be grown or produced here locally, and then the folks that grow it or produce it are going to come out early in the morning and prepare it for us, and I'm very excited about that. It's one of my favorite events every year because we'll have a great opportunity to network. We'll see some folks we don't normally see at some of our events."

Even the door prizes given out at the breakfast will have ties to agriculture.

"In giving out those door prizes we're gonna allow folks to learn a little about agriculture in Brazos County."

Hickman says agriculture’s story is an important one that needs to be told.

"It's kind of like when we go to Washington. What's critical about that is to have a consistent message and to be delivering it in a consistent manner, and I think that's we have to do to get the message out about agriculture, and it's folks like us in the Chamber of Commerce that have to help get that message out, which is one of the reasons we do the ag breakfast, one of the reasons we're involved in the crawfish boil and the youth livestock show, all of types of things we can do that help kids understand that milk doesn't come out of a carton, it comes from a cow."

I’m Joe Brown, looking at Brazos Valley agriculture, From The Ground Up.