Farming

Driving through Minnesota farm country reminded me:  It’s a shame we city folk so often take farming for granted.   

Farmers do high-volume "manufacturing" of living things (both plant and animal) using physical and biological processes that they and we understand only partially.  Humanity processes and distribute farm products to support some six billion people, using only a fraction of those people as farm workers.  We do this in a complex economy that generates enough "surplus" (if that’s a proper term when some still starve) to be able to send people into space. 

This isn’t an occasion for complacency or pride.  Millions don’t yet get enough to eat; we have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do.  But the trend is indisputably positive.  If all this isn’t a "sign and wonder," I’m hard-pressed to think of what would qualify.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow, indeed.