But gathering food takes time, time I don’t have because I’m neck deep in the production of this issue you now have before you.
Even though my company does not require me to work all hours of the day, by the time I step away from my desk for the day it is hard to muster the ambition required for such a daunting task as grocery shopping for a family of five.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been too caught up in work to find time to go to the store, and it probably won’t be the last.
Don’t worry; the people in my household aren’t withering away. The other day I was able to grab some milk and bread from the convenience store, plus we are fortunate to keep chest freezers stocked with beef and pork.
When things are looking bleak, we feast on steak and potatoes because the ingredients required are few. (Oh, the perks of being involved in the agricultural community.)
As much as I have researched time management and how to be more efficient at managing this limited commodity, I just cannot escape the time required to gather and prepare food.
But who am I to complain? Thanks to the many advancements in agriculture and food processing, a trip to the grocery store, where many items are pre-packaged, pre-made or pre-assembled, is far easier than what hunters and gatherers faced more than 12,000 years ago.
Their entire day was devoted to sourcing food. Some would risk their lives, and not every day was a success.
Even less than 100 years ago, it was still quite common for at least one person in a household to devote a good portion of the day to food preparations. My grandmother always spent a fair amount of her time in the kitchen, in the garden or tending to her chickens.
With 2 percent of Canada’s population residing on a farm, that means one person is able to feed 49 others.
Because a small group of devoted individuals are willing to dedicate their entire day (as well as night) to growing, raising and producing food, the rest of the population has the luxury of just finding a small amount of time in their day or week to pick it up from a central location.
Since June 1 is World Milk Day, what better time than now to take a moment to thank all of the people involved in getting milk from the farm to the table?
Without the person who tills the soil to plant the seed to grow the crop to feed the cow to harvest the milk to haul to the plant to put into bottles to take to the store, the rest of us would not be able to enjoy one of nature’s most perfect foods quite as easily as we can today.
I know I certainly appreciate the time and commitment dairy producers put forth each and every day to produce the foods the rest of us need only to swing by a store to pick up.
Thank you for all you do. Happy World Milk Day! 
-
Karen Lee
- Editor
- Progressive Dairyman
- Email Karen Lee
