Herring in hot sauce

I am always amazed at the vast number of food products available to American consumers in neighborhood supermarkets. I do quite a bit of the grocery shopping for our family, and I am always discovering something new.
My wife always gets more than she bargained for when she sends me to the supermarket. Like many men trusted with a shopping list and the checkbook, I have a hard time resisting certain items, delicacies my wife neglected to add to the shopping list. Essential items, like sardines and herring in Louisiana hot sauce.
My wife knows right where everything is in the supermarket and doesn’t stray from her shopping list. I, on the other hand, hunt and peck my way around the grocery store, and notice many products my wife never sees. Some of these products simply must be tried.
I don’t know if most men really like all the unusual kinds of foods they buy, or if they hope by doing so their wives will stop sending them to do the grocery shopping; but I really like them – well, most of them. I’ve had second thoughts about a few now hidden at the back of our bottom pantry shelf.
At the modern American supermarket we can: sit down for a delicious hot meal; pay our utility bills; post our mail; send money orders; fill our drug prescriptions; do our banking; buy flowers to give the wife in hopes she’ll forgive the herring in hot sauce; and, oh yes, buy food.
When Americans go to the grocery store, we begin a journey that leads us through the world’s most abundant supply of quality foods at the world’s lowest prices. We take our food supply so much for granted we are unconcerned with stocking up; we know we can always find what we need tomorrow.
While we should not take anything for granted, the best way to ensure we maintain our bountiful and affordable food supply is to absolutely never take our American farmers and ranchers for granted. Just a thought as Congress enters the year of rewriting the Farm Bill with pressures to slash farm payments.
Editor’s note: Denny Banister of Jefferson City, is assistant director of information and public relations for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.