I’ve shared with you before that we grow a small garden in our backyard each spring/summer. This will actually be our fourth season to plant and I’m hoping that this year we actually are able to reap the fruits of our labor in some measurable way. You see, the first year we planted there was unusually heavy rain that rotted almost everything in the garden. The next year there was an army of unidentifiable bugs having a garden feast (literally) on every plant and then the summer of 2011 brought a record breaking heat wave and several weeks of city water restrictions.

Each year has brought more financial investment, time and hard work that has ultimately been for naught. In other words, if we depended on that garden to fill up “half our plate”… we wouldn’t be very successful. So why keep doing it? I have a grocery store 3 minutes from my house, so it’s not like I HAVE to grow a garden. The most basic answer is because I WANT to.

I genuinely appreciate the process of planting a seed or small plant in soil that must be irrigated, aerated, weeded and fertilized so that roots can take hold and draw in the right nutrients to produce the freshest food I have direct access to. I appreciate and am inspired by the challenge of harnessing so many uncontrollable variables in order to keep our garden alive, with hopes of being able to enjoy and share the bounty with my family and friends. However, the sincerest enjoyment and greatest reward my garden hobby has produced is the continuously renewed respect for those who do this on a much grander scale each and every day without hesitation.

Being proud of our industry that feeds millions of people the freshest, healthiest, best tasting food on the planet has been a constant for me now 17 years. But I have been especially moved over these last few months as I have witnessed colleagues and our industry battle heartbreaking food safety crises and major crop losses and asked myself ‘why?’. Why do they keep doing it year after year never knowing what risk or “potential for naught” may lie around the corner?

And from this I’ve discovered a new truth about people who grow fresh fruit and vegetables that makes me even more proud to be a part of it. Growers, marketers, and distributors of fresh fruit & vegetables do not repeatedly take these risks because they HAVE to. They take these risks because they WANT to. Our fellow industry members are talented and smart scientists, marketers, accountants, business strategists, etc. who would no doubt achieve equal or greater success outside our walls. However, it’s not their “HAVES” shackling them to their jobs – rather it’s their “WANTS” that keep them as fresh producers.

They are just as proud of their role in providing the best food on the planet as I am. They, too, admire their peers who stumble out of a battle with Mother Nature or another unforeseen attack and are ready to fight again for yet another season. They, too, feel helpless at times and appreciate the brotherhood that comes from facing certain giants head on with respect and dignity.

I am excited about this New Year, planting our 4th garden and mostly I am thrilled and humbled to know I work every day in a space filled with people who do not persevere because we HAVE to, but we persevere because we WANT to.

Sincerely and with great admiration for you all,
Dan’l

Posted by: The Entertainer (Dan’l Mackey Almy)