Lake County Gazette

State Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) wants to remind everyone who enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner across the country that Illinois probably a played a big part in producing food for their feasts.

"Do  you know where your Thanksgiving food comes from?" the representative asked on Facebook. "Illinois leads the  way by being one of the top producers of pumpkins, green beans, sweet corn and field corn.”

Each year, Illinois produces 5.6 million hundredweights of pumpkins, more than than the next six states combined, according to a Nielsen survey, Chef's Pencil reported. It is also the nation's second-largest producer of field corn.

Farms cover around 75% of Illinois’s land, and it is a top producer of soybeans, corn, swine, cattle, wheat, oats, and poultry, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Agriculture contributes over $19 billion to Illinois’s economy every year, more than half of which comes from corn and a quarter of which comes from soybeans.

Every year, the US produces around 240 million turkeys, according to the Nielsen report. Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in the country, with around 44 million each year, followed by Arkansas and North Carolina. Meanwhile Georgia leads the nation in pecan production, growing half the national supply.

All in all, Americans were predicted to consume more than 350 million pounds of turkey, 250 million  pounds of potatoes, 57 million pounds of sweet potatoes, 80 million pounds of cranberry and 28 million pies. Wisconsin dominates the world in growing cranberries, with 60% of the U.S. production and more than half of the cranberries grown in the world.