600,000 Pounds.... of... Potatoes.

Merci, Tinyfarmblog.com

So I heard the story initially on NPR last evening on my way home. Then I saw another story about it today in the NYTimes: Some good-hearted farmers in Colorado opened their farm to visitors last Saturday with an offer to essentially 'take what you can carry' in an effort to provide nutritional food to people who might need it. "Okay," so I thought, "what a nice idea. Now a few families from around the county will have some free potatoes and green beans for Thanksgiving!"

NOPE.

FORTY THOUSAND PEOPLE SHOWED UP!

What?! I mean... what?! First off, how did 40,000 people even hear about this little event? Second, they all managed to pick their way off the main highways, descend into Platteville County and find the place? (On further reflexion, I guess one just followed the line of cars that eventually wound up closing the highway). See the local news story here. If this is even close to representational of the need in this country, then we've got some serious reconsidering of our priorities to do.

A tremendously generous gesture and a wonderfully refreshing story in the ever-present doom and gloom lately, but I have one question: If this was after the harvest, and they've never done this before, does this mean that more farms could conceivably be wasting 600,000 pounds of food every autumn, or are the Millers just forgetful about where they plant things?