Wheat fields of McMinnville

the food where I live

Wheat fields are beautiful. That's a field of food right there. Golden grains shining under the July sun. It's a shame that this food isn't going to feed the people who live near it. This food is going to be exported. This is what's wrong with the world right now. We grow grain and ship it away. We grow nuts and ship it away. We grow beets for sugar and ship the sugar away.

All this food surrounds us and it isn't going to feed us. It's going to suck up a bunch of power to send it somewhere else, to feed other people. We have starving people here in our own county. But that's another story, isn't it? Because even if all the food we produced were to be sold locally there just aren't enough jobs to provide money for the people who are starving to buy it with. The weirdest thing is that every country could be growing enough food for all it's starving people but the people who are starving aren't necessarily starving because there is no food, they are starving because the food costs too much.

While poverty is something I have been familiar with personally in the past and am re-experiencing much more lightly now, I am extremely fortunate that I have enough resources to buy 18 pounds of sour cherries when they become available. I am fortunate to be able to buy them for $1.20 per pound and that I have the knowledge to preserve them in several different ways.

To know how fortunate I really am, even with debt collectors calling me every day, all I have to do is see how rich in food I am to feel my true luck. And now, I must go shower, get dressed, and get processing because my sour cherries are turning brown!! Ack! I'm off. I hope for all of you that you are rich in food too because that is the true measure of our well being.