By Pamela Lewison, Director of Washington Policy Center for Agriculture
With the holidays fast approaching, food becomes the centerpiece of tables, gifts, and thoughts for people and families in various ways.
Maybe a family has a traditional recipe eaten every holiday season, lovingly handed down generation-to-generation with unwritten touches that can only be replicated when the item is made with another family member. Maybe there is a nostalgic food that was once a celebrated part of the meal that has since fallen by the wayside because the preparer is no longer alive. Perhaps it is the act of giving a batch of cookies, a cake, or a seasonal bread as a gift that makes food special. Whatever it is, we all have something that endears food and the holiday season to us.
But most people are no longer directly involved in the act of food production. In fact, there was a crazy internet “myth” floating around a few years ago suggesting that 38 percent of grade school-aged children believed hamburgers were made with ham. It is not hard to believe that myth could be true, since food producers comprise less than one percent of the total population of the United States. Yet, the evidence of our effort is everywhere.
We are proud American culture is steeped in food. We consume food while driving, we browse for ways to prepare food on social media, we even watch other people prepare food on television. Collectively, however, our desire to understand the whole story of food often begins and ends with the individual experience of it. Foods are often connected to our emotions because they are consumed during times when emotions run high – grief, longing, joy, and more.
That is why the holidays are so intrinsically linked to food. They should be just as indelibly linked to agriculture and the industries and workers who support it – the true genesis of every meal regardless of the season. Food comes from our farm and ranch families diligently tending to their land, water, livestock, and other resources to ensure generations of production will be available. The end product – like a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and gravy – should also be a reflection of its origin – a beautiful field of rich soil, filled with lush, leafy potato plants and a well-cared for animal, raised to the perfect market weight.
Knowing that hamburgers are made from ground beef, that mashed potatoes came from tubers that grew underground, that gravy is made with drippings from roasted meat, that farmers and ranchers are an integral part of every meal and make up less than 1 percent of America’s total population, should enhance the holidays. These small pieces of wisdom and information about where a holiday meal comes from should make the feast that much more enjoyable.
President George Washington is credited with saying, “I’d rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.” He, like many of our founding fathers, loved his land and his fellow countrymen. His words have withstood the test of time and still convey how many farmers and ranchers feel today about their occupation.
During the holidays, I urge you to take a moment to think about the first person to care about the feasts of the season. It was likely a farmer or rancher you will never meet who helped to ensure your family and friends had a meal that will be part of your holiday memories for years to come.
Pam Lewison is a fourth-generation farmer near Moses Lake. She is also the agriculture research director for the Washington Policy Center. You can read more of Pam’s work by visiting WPC’s Agriculture Center webpage.
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