For agriculture, hard times mean helping out BY MARIA TIBBETTS, DIGITAL & SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
They’re giving their time, money, attention and optimism to people who may not be able to hold themselves up right now.
The entire world is in uncharted waters right now. We’ve never had so much access to information—and misinformation—and still felt so uninformed. We’ve never been so cut off socially, but connected digitally. I daresay our minds and hearts were never meant to cope with the circumstances of today.
From brightening the day for senior citizens, to donating hamburger to food pantries, to coming up with innovative ways to make sure people can still get fresh food, agriculture steps up.
Everyone deals with uncertainty differently. Some react in faith, some in fear. As agriculture faces unprecedented uncertainty, with disruptions in both the supply and demand of the food chain, on top of already shaky markets, it’s easy to be overwhelmed, hopeless and frustrated. But we’re humbled to be able to—once again—report that in the midst of this uncertainty and fear, agriculture is helping out. While ranchers and agribusiness people face the very real idea that this time, the problems in the cattle market may mean they’re not in business for another calving season, they’re looking for ways to make life better for others.
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Hard times are nothing new for farmers and ranchers. We’re used to finding new ways to make old things work, to stretching things just a little farther than they’re meant to stretch. And we’ll keep doing it. We’ll keep tightening our own belts while we offer a hand up to our neighbors. We’ll keep speaking those words of hope and encouragement, and doing those deeds of thoughtfulness, even while we watch the factors that dictate our livelihoods continue to worsen, and calculate our own situations with red ink. And we’ll get through it. The world may look different on the other side, but, God willing, we’ll still be standing there, holding that hand out and offering those words of encouragement, ready to keep feeding a hungry world—body, mind and soul.
