With America's birthday fast approaching, everyone's busy planning barbecues, block parties, and beach trips. But as is the case with most holidays, we rarely stop to think about what is being celebrated.

While the original Fourth of July celebration was one of new beginnings, it has since become a celebration of history—a time when we remember our Founding Fathers and everyone who made this country what it is today.

Among them, some were considered military-minded, and others showed strength in financial policy, but all had one thing in common-farming.

Those who came to America were faced with the challenge of starting from scratch in a new world, which meant learning what they could cultivate from the land, and figuring out the most efficient way to do so.

Andrea Wulf, a British design historian, recently published this very story in her book "Founding Gardeners", which discusses the agricultural passions of our first four presidents and how that set the groundwork for an "independent agrarian republic in the New World."

In the midst of war, Wulf explains, General George Washington was writing letters to his estate manager to relay planting instructions for the groves at Mount Vernon. Likewise, Benjamin Franklin himself was taking time out of the Stamp Act debate during the Pennsylvania Assembly to send seeds home to his wife for his own garden, and for use among the Philadelphia plantsmen, because agricultural self-sufficiency was "vital for the increasingly rebellious colonies."

James Madison subscribed to this way of thinking as well and set the bar high for future American farmers. Following his time at the White House, Madison returned to his Virginia plantation and served as the first president of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle, leaving behind the message that we, as Americans, have a responsibility to live off the land while practicing responsible conservation efforts to protect it as well.

But the story that is perhaps the most reflective of America's agricultural inherence is when Wulf discusses the trade negotiations that took place in London following the Revolutionary War.

As was customary, the delegates—Thomas Jefferson and John Adams among them—toured several famous British gardens throughout their stay. This time however, Jefferson and Adams noticed that the trees and shrubs looked a little different. Designed by a farmer from Philadelphia who had brought back more than 200 species of plant life from his new home, just weeks after a war between the two countries, the English gardens had become American.

Today, although most of the populace is several generations removed from the farm, we are starting to see a return to the same agrarian ideals. President Obama and the First Lady have dedicated a plot of land at the White House to a garden where their own food is grown, farmers markets are popping up in cities all over the country, and making your own food is becoming somewhat of a social currency again.

While all of these are great things, it's also important that we see beyond the trend. "Large-scale" farmers—those who provide the vast majority of the food and fiber for this country—have been struggling with destructive weather patterns, and now, the very government that was founded upon agricultural self-sufficiency is considering greatly weakening the agricultural safety net, a radical policy move that would throw our remaining 210,000 farmers into even greater economic uncertainty and close the door on any young Americans who might have been future farmers, looking to follow in the footsteps of the generations before them.

So, this Fourth of July, while we're all enjoying hot dogs and potato salad, maybe we should take some time to think about where that food came from, and be thankful that we are agriculturally independent.

Because there's something about eating an imported picnic lunch on the Fourth of July that just doesn't seem... American.