Food for Bought

Great-grandpa raised and butchered his own livestock, and grew crops to feed them. Grandma raised chickens and grew vegetables. Grandpa fished, and brought home his catch pan-ready. My uncle hunted game, and he and my aunt turned it into dinner. In her girlhood Mom milked cows, churned butter and gathered eggs.
 
Me? I've spent most of my life getting scolded for having it so good. These days I wish I could go back in time and scold right back. "Whose fault is that?" my imaginary self would remind them. "You knew how to create food, yet you didn't teach me?" But that's not fair. Who knew how things would turn out?

In their world it made sense to prepare the kids for a good job that would pay real cash. Producing food is great, but that won't buy you a kitchen to cook it in. Food producers had to scale up. There were more mouths to feed. The days of the hunter-gatherer and the self-sustaining farmer were gone. Farmers needed to go big or go get a job.

So I never learned jack about chickens, fishing, or dressing game. All my hunter-gatherer skills involve a grocery store. I'm good at it, too. I can find and decipher expiration date glyphs, I know when branding is BS, and when there's a good reason something costs more. I know the going prices for all the items we consume, so I can spot bargains.

I hope that for me, there will always be the grocery store. The best I can do about food production is grow zucchini. Nice, but it's not 3 squares on the table 365 days a year. Raising chickens and goats?  If I'd started when I was younger I could probably still do it, I'd have the right muscles developed, and the knowledge and experience. But not now.

The time is coming when Americans will need my grandparents' survival skills. For many it's already here. The obvious problem is that paychecks are shrinking, adequate-paying jobs are scarce, yet people still need to eat. It's time to take a step back and become more self-sustaining. It can be done because back in the day, everybody did it.

If I had any young people among my imaginary readers, I would advise them to find a place where there's room to grow... food.  A place where nobody will stop them from raising chickens or goats. Maybe it hasn't come to that quite yet, but please keep it in mind.

Meanwhile, I'm off to my hunting grounds to stalk the wily bargains lurking among the produce and meat sections. With luck I can bag enough to sustain us for yet another week.