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Giving Thanks

Posted at 10:43 PM on November 26, 2008 by Donna McClurkan (4 Comments)

Two years ago, our family started a Thanksgiving dinner tradition: expressing gratitude, out loud, for the folks that grew, harvested, processed and transported our food. I'm not sure about the motive, though I suppose it was a way to be more conscious about the myriad processes involved in procuring food.

I remember it felt strange to say these things aloud. Superficial, really. As if they were words I should be saying, rather than expressions of gratitude that came naturally. Eleven months into our year of local food-centered living, I think I know why. Until I came to understand where our food comes from - what it really takes to get good food to our table - I couldn't conjure an image that was real enough to warrant a sincere expression of thanks.

This Thanksgiving will be very different. We have nearly a years' worth of names and faces and stories to go with everything that will be on our table. We know the farmers and growers. In some cases, we've worked on their land and in their kitchens. We know their kids. We have cared for some of their animals. We have looked our dinner in the eye. We know hot, sweaty, back-breaking, tired-to-the-bone, Advil-popping work - work we find meaningful.

We know where our food comes from.

We are deeply, profoundly grateful.

Comments (4)

Donna - It was so much fun hearing you on Splendid Table! You made us midwestern locavores proud :-)!

Cher

Posted by Cher | December 1, 2008 9:08 AM

Response:
Thank you Donna for the very appropriate and timely post. I agree with you wholly. To express thanks and gratitude to all those who work in the labor chain of providing our foods without fully understanding all the labor that goes into it is superficial, even if well-intentioned. I do not claim to have nearly the in-depth understanding of everything that goes into to bringing food to our table that you do, so I can only really express a more superficial thanks. Yet it is heartfelt – I am profoundly grateful, because as a grower (for family sustenance) I do have an inkling of how much time-consuming, pain-inducing work it takes to bring wholesome and nutritious food to the table. And how very worthwhile it is!

Knowing who is producing your food and how they do it is of such inestimable value – just consider that now our Food and Drug Administration, responsible for insuring the safety of our food supply, now permits low levels of melamine in foods, despite the demonstrable dangers of this and their own admission just a month earlier that they could not determine what a safe level of melamine might be! Nice to know they have corporate (oops, strike that) OUR best interests at heart. And who knows what other hazards they have not been forced to reveal.

If you really care about your health, being well-connected to your food suppliers is essential, and obtaining your foods from local sources is clearly the best way to make these connections.

Posted by Jeff | December 2, 2008 11:45 AM

Jeff - we are definitely on the same page. I have been following the FDA/melamine story, too. That this chemical has been deemed safe for anyone - let alone infants - to consume is beyond comprehension. Reasons for sourcing our food close to home just keep accumulating. Given the threats to our food supply + our economy worsening, I predict a huge increase in the number of folks that will have to learn, first hand, what it takes to grow food. We need to start thinking about ways to be ready for this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jeff.
Donna

Posted by Donna McClurkan | December 2, 2008 12:55 PM

Hey Cher - thanks for the feedback :).

Posted by Donna McClurkan | December 2, 2008 12:57 PM