If one thing the holiday season means -- it’s good food – lots and lots of good food.
We spend a great deal of time in December running from office party to neighbour’s for some holiday cheer and then of course family gatherings, all of them fueled by platters of food.
It’s difficult to imagine sitting down to a meal on Dec. 25, and not eating way too turkey, along with perogies and sour cream, sweet potatoes, ham, fruit cake, and more.
Then there are the three days of left overs, turkey croquettes, turkey salad sandwiches, turkey soup, to the point by the end we curl up in a heap on the chesterfield, stare at the Christmas lights, and occasionally gobble quietly like the departed bird.
What does this all have to do with an agriculture column?
Well, simply that at times as we sit down to what for most of us is a bountiful table of food, we might not always remember just where all that food comes from.
There is no homemade egg nog without a farmer raising laying hens for the eggs, and other farmers operating a dairy for the milk.
That goes for everything else on the table for the holiday season.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the cashews, filberts and almonds on the pre-meal nut tray, the cranberries that make turkey worth eating, or the fruit in the Christmas pudding, some primary producer is behind them.
That is why we always need to remember just how important farmers are in our world.
For some there is a growing distrust of what producers do, especially in terms of crop protection product use and animal welfare, but for the vast majority of farmers, their primary focus is safe, sustainable food production. Their effort goes a long way toward ensuring we have easy access to the food we want at the local grocery store, at a cost that when you eliminate the non-food items in the grocery cart are still quite reasonable.
Certainly there are those in our country, and the world, who does go to bed hungry far too often, but that is more of a wealth distribution issue than one of food production.
Farmers produce enough to feed everyone, but the economic systems, political roadblocks and production distribution shortfalls do combine to keep food produced getting to everyone in an affordable fashion.
But, here in Canada, as we head to the refrigerator for a snack after watching our favourite holiday movie, we should take a moment to remember the work of farmers who produced that which we eat.
Happy holiday everyone.
Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
