America's Heartland - Episode 301

Episode 303
	Just how much do American farmers feed the world? Paul Ryan begins this episode with some astounding facts about our nation’s agricultural abundance. Jason finds one place where our nation’s bounty is fully evident: the huge, high quality food buffets of Las Vegas. He then continues on to a nearby pig farm where an innovative "green" farmer is recycling all those leftovers into nutritious swine feed. Paul finds another entrepreneur in Alaska who’s using a little-used salmon species to make tasty dog treats. And Pat McConahay visits a North Dakota sculptor who’s creating immense metal "ag art" to attract visitors to his once-bustling farm town.

Agriculture's Importance to America
You can look at American agriculture like any industry in terms of cold, hard numbers, but when you do, what those numbers say about the outpouring from the heartland’s two million farms and ranches almost defies belief.

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Bountiful Buffet
One indisputable fact defines America’s Heartland: nowhere else on earth are so few farmers feeding so many people with such variety and abundance. Fact number two: Americans enjoy a bountiful buffet-style meal more than anyone, anywhere. Together those realities “set the table” for a story direct from “The Strip” in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.

Prime Dining
It’s the Las Vegas buffet story, continued – and the images are somewhat less appetizing. As good as chef Von Wieser’s cuisine is, the Bellagio’s diners depart with an enormous amount of food left over. Throw it out? No way. It turns out those fancy servings go straight back to the farm, where a second group of hungry diners awaits.

Fishing for Fido
Far to the north in Alaska, one man saw the tremendous volume of scraps being discarded by the state’s prosperous salmon processors, and moved to set up his own "recycling" business. Now he’s turning those throwaways into a healthful delicacy designed for America’s dogs.

Giants of Agriculture
If you were deep in farm country and came across an exit for a road called “The Enchanted Highway,” would you take it? We did on the prairielands of North Dakota. We found a man whose recycling skills are limited mostly to large chunks of scrap metal, but who’s building a huge and oddball tribute to the struggling farming community he calls home.

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The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, Farm Credit, and the United Soybean Board make presentation of America's Heartland possible.

Additional production and promotion assistance is provided by
The American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council, U.S. Grains Council,
National Association of Wheat Growers, and the National FFA Organization.