Taking Food for Granted
How many ways do we reference our food security without thinking about it? When someone is busy, they say they have a full plate. Our ‘breakfast’ is hardly 'breaking a fast' as we sometimes snack right up until bedtime!
Food security: the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains, I took food security for granted. I was fortunate to grow up on a farm on which we raised cattle and some pigs. My parents also put in a big garden every summer and we stockpiled potatoes and carrots in the root cellar to get us through the winter. My Mom froze beans and peas we grew. We had a milk cow for many years, so we had as much milk as we wanted, and my sister and I got to split the check for the cream we sold.
Over time, I had mostly forgotten about the toilet paper panic that occurred early in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, torrential rain beginning November 13 has resulted in severe flooding and mudslides that have disrupted all three major highway routes connecting our city of Kamloops, British Columbia in Canada with Vancouver; there are no predictions for when these routes will reopen.
Already there are no fresh fruits or vegetables in the grocery store I typically sh