“If you ate today, thank a farmer” is a saying that has beenprinted on posters, T-shirts and bumper stickers. The saying has been cited in print since at least the early 1990s and has been popular in Canada, where it has been a theme of Migrant Workers Awareness campaigns.
   
“If you eat today, thank a farmer. If you eat in peace, thank a veteran” and “If you eat today, thank a farmer. If it’s on your table, thank a trucker. If you eat in peace, thank a veteran” are extended versions of the saying.
   
   
Google Books
The Mozart Season
By Virginia Euwer Wolff
New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
1991
Pg. 116:
He was wearing one of those hats people wear when they drive tractors. It said, “If you ate today, thank a farmer.”
 
Google Groups: rec.crafts.metalworking
NAMES Plans Vendor
Errol Groff
10/24/96
(...)
If you ate today, thank a farmer.
If he farmed today with anything other than a sharp stick,
Thank the machinists!
 
19 June 2001, Medicine Hat (Alberta) News, “Speak Your Mind,” pg. B2, col. 5:
I wish sometimes people would remember farmers have bills too and we don’t get a weekly paycheque, so to all you negative people you should remember “If you ate today, you should thank a farmer.”
 
16 October 2005, Brandon (Manitoba) Sun, “Letters to the Editor: Thank a farmer for your meal today,” pg. 7, col. 3:
Remember: farmers feed cities. If you ate today, thank a farmer.
BOB FRIESEN,
president Canadian Federation of Agriculture
Wawanesa
 
Canada.com
Farms are dying, and farmers may perish of broken hearts
As the fields of Quinn were transformed into the Plains of Abraham, the proprietor talked about an uncertain future.
BY THE GAZETTE (MONTREAL) JUNE 16, 2008
(...)
A sign outside the kitchen succinctly expresses the gospel according to Quinn: “If you ate today, thank a farmer.”
 
The Food Ethics Blog
If you ate today, thank a farmer…and…?
Posted on June 6, 2011 by Chris MacDonald
Surely you’ve seen this bumper sticker: “If you ate today, thank a farmer.”
 
That’s fine advice — farmers (of various kinds) play a key role in food production. But it’s also pretty narrow advice.
 
The Ontarion
If you ate today, thank a farm worker
Mar 29, 2012 Divinus Caesar
“About 1 in every 3600 agricultural workers in Canada die from workplace related accidents or disease every year, a rate that has been increasing over the past 15 years.”
 
Approximately 40,000 people work as migrant agricultural labourers in Canada, and around 27,000 of them in Ontario alone. Shipped into the country through the Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program in order to fill temporary gaps in the agricultural labour supply during the growing season, these workers and their role in food production were the focus of Migrant Workers Awareness. Consisting of speakers, movies, and music, the week was intended to highlight both the importance of these workers to Canadian agriculture, and the struggles and privations they face through being denied the rights afforded to Canadian citizens.
   
Google Books
Niagara Food:
A Flavourful History of the Peninsula’s Bounty
By Tiffany Mayer
Charleston, SC: The History Press
2014
Pg. 27:
Every locavore has heard the saying “If you ate today, thank a farmer.” But there are other people who deserve gratitude every time someone sinks his or her teeth into a Niagara peach, sips a glass of one of the region’s wines or buys a loved one a plant that was grown at a local greenhouse.
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark IF YOU ATE TODAY, THANK A FARMER
Goods and Services IC 036. US 100 101 102. G & S: Charitable foundation services, namely, providing fundraising activities, funding, scholarships and/or financial assistance for farmers, to assist students to enable them to continue studies in agricultural sciences and foster careers in agriculture related businesses, and to promote awareness of farming communities and food choices. FIRST USE: 20101114. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20101114
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 86400731
Filing Date September 19, 2014
Current Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Owner (APPLICANT) Edick, Tessa INDIVIDUAL UNITED STATES 21 Pond Hill Road Craryville NEW YORK 12521
Attorney of Record Renee L. Duff
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE