I've just come back from a few days in the wilderness with my son, Captain Oreo, to many news accounts of flood devastation in the US Midwest, especially Iowa. Most of the mainstream news accounts seem to have been focusing on the devastation of homes in Cedar Rapids and the (fortunately very low) losses of human lives. It's completely human that our attention would be gripped by the images of submerged houses and cityscapes. As most of us live in urban settings, we can identify most strongly with families who have lost everything in the rising waters. But the sleeper story, which is now slowly but surely rising to awareness, is the impact on US agriculture. These floods have also laid to ruin millions of acres of planted fields. We'll all feel the effects of this rain in the fall but by then it will be so much more difficult, because of the distorting lens of space and the quiet passage of months, for us to put together cause and effect.
I just went out to my yard to check on our seedlings -- a small patch of spinach and kale in a postage stamp urban yard. They're doing just fine so far. I'll take the Captain out there tonight for a little survey. It may not seem like much, but I'll do whatever I can do to help him understand that his dinner doesn't really come from the supermarket.
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