Wendell Berry – Eating is an agricultural act

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Welcome to The Daily Quote – a podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and today is October 24th. Since it's National Food Day, it's only right to celebrate one of the simplest, yet greatest pleasures of life: food.

But it’s not just about indulging in your favorite meals – this day is all about making healthier choices and supporting more sustainable food systems. Now, before you start dreaming about pizza, let’s dive into a quote that ties in perfectly with today’s theme. The quote for today is from American author and poet, Wendell Berry, who once said,

"Eating is an agricultural act."

Now, at first, that might sound a little technical – I mean, most of us just stab something on our plate with our fork and shove it our mouth without thinking about farms or fields. But Berry's point is simple: every time we sit down for a meal, we’re connected to the earth and the people who grow our food.

What you choose to eat can impact not just your own health but also the health of the environment and the community. It’s like a subtle reminder that food doesn’t just magically appear in your fridge, though I smart fridges with AI of course are coming soon to an appliance store near you that will automatically detect when you are low on something or if food as spoiled and order the items online.

Could be convenient, especially when it’s been one of those long days.

But the point of the quote is that there’s a whole chain of people, land, and effort behind every bite.

And I suppose today on National Food Day we can celebrate the fact that Malthus was wrong... He famously predicted mass starvations as human population growth was exponential and food production growth was linear.

Malthus failed to anticipate the fact that humans are good at increasing productivity by using technology.

Others have followed Malthus, like Paul R. Ehrlich who predicted mass starvation due to resource depletion in his book The Population Bomb. Like Malthus all his predictions were wrong.

So, today, as you celebrate National Food Day, maybe think about how we are lucky to have the ability to sustain ourselves with such an abundance of food. And also think about where your meals come from. Whether you're grabbing something fresh from a farmer's market or just making an effort to eat a little healthier, you’re part of something bigger. And hey, if that means we have to eat more veggies today, at least we can feel good about it!

For us, this day is bad timing as the kids are having friends over for a sleep over and I'm pretty sure it won't be all broccoli and bean sprouts for dinner... Every now and then it is ok to eat whatever you want.

Too bad today isn't National Eat Anything You Want Without Guilt Day...

That’s it for today’s episode, I'm Andrew McGivern, signing off and I'll see you tomorrow for another Daily Quote.