How Iowa farmers feed your Super Bowl party

When I shopped for groceries this week, I saw a stockpile of Buffalo chicken wings taking up freezer space. Yes, we’re days away from Super Bowl Sunday, the second-biggest food holiday of the year.

No matter what team you’re rooting for, we are all connected through food and agriculture.

Farmers work hard year-round to provide us with nutritious, high-quality football snacks – whether it’s tortilla chips or pork ribs – while also caring for farm animals and the environment.

So when you’re noshing on nachos and playing the essential role of armchair referee, take a minute to be grateful for the farmers who make our work and play possible.

And check out these entertaining food, farm and football facts to help you win the next pub trivia contest:

• Footballs are often called “pigskins,” but the official NFL footballs are made from high-quality cowhides.
• Pizza is the third most popular Super Bowl food. The pork sausage on your pizza likely came from Iowa, the top pork-producing state. Iowa also produced nearly 296 million pounds of dairy cheese in 2022, according to the USDA. Iowa ranks 12th nationally in milk production.
• Cows often eat leftover brewers’ grains from beer processing. Cattle are natural upcyclers, consuming grasses and crop byproducts (like soybean and cotton hulls) that we can’t eat and turning them into high-quality protein.
• Iowa farmers have restored more than 416,383 acres of wetlands, equal in area to 315,000 football fields. Research shows that wetlands help prevent, on average, 52% of nitrates from reaching our water.
• One U.S. farm feeds 166 people annually in the U.S. and abroad. Americans spend about 10% of their disposable income on food each year, compared to low-income countries where consumers spend 50% of their income on food.

To learn more about how farmers work to ensure meat quality, food safety and farm animal care, visit “Real Farmers. Real Food. Real Meat.”