Hokkaido Summit: The Right Message

I heard a complaint that, by serving delicious food, the Hokkaido Summit was sending the wrong message about the environment and the food crisis. I beg to differ. It was exactly the right message, and here it is, spelled out:

The Earth is bountiful when treated right.

Mother Nature's gifts--fruit and vegetables, grain, meat and fish, milk and butter--plus human ingenuity in preparing them for consumption are what was on display in Hokkaido.

Do the critics want the land to stop producing potatoes? Should people stop thinking of the endless variations in how to serve potatoes? I don't think so.

What is wrong is political ineptness that keeps food from getting to where it can be appreciated.

Mother Nature does not set the price of fuel. Governments do. Mother Nature does not create import and export rules. Legislatures do. The Earth was not created with distribution networks in place. People did that, too.

The food served in Hokkaido did not come out of a bottle or a can. It came from the land and sea and was prepared by human beings who care about what we eat. Take Hokkaido as a model.

If we take care of the land and sea and put the Earth's bounty into the hands of the people, everyone can eat as well as they did at the summit.