Those of the rural countryside have long known about the many benefits of living in such a place, even taking some things for granted.
Good and readily available food has long been something which I’ve always made personal note about with the rural landscape. Certainly, the countryside’s soil holds special places in the hearts of folks of my ilk, as does the peacefulness and relative quiet. But food is where it all starts.
That’s all come to mind during recent days, with some of the major meat-packing companies closing their facilities because of the coronavirus pandemic — them being ordered yesterday by President Trump to remain open under the Defense Production Act so that already-tested food chains aren’t completely severed. Reports of food not being processed and getting into the hands of consumers have been widespread in the United States, highlighted by photographs of near-empty and empty meat shelves in grocery stores.
Food simply isn’t getting through the system, in many cases.
But here, I somewhat selfishly look around and don’t have a feel of desperation where the food-supply is concerned. Here, up and down our rural roads, are many farmers and small processors who readily have food of all sorts available. I look out to my gardens, which soon will be pouring another season of vegetables into our old farmhouse.
Local food production and processing long have been big parts of our rural nature, and in recent months that’s been magnified many times over.
There’s some guilt in my heart, knowing that so many don’t have the same food-access opportunities that we have in farm country. At the same time, there’s comfort in knowing that the coronavirus pandemic might well wake people in all regions to the importance of at least having local sources available, if not as a primary food source.
A revered old farmer told me many years ago that, no matter how desperate things got, he’d be able to survive — and help many others survive — because the farmers ultimately hold all the cards where food-production is concerned. Plenty of things have changed in agriculture during the five decades since he uttered those words to me, but the pandemic is showing that there might be more truth in his words than I then imagined.
We have food in the rural countryside, and it will continue to be shared. The sharing-processes might start to look a little different than they did a few months ago, however.
— Scott Schultz
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