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These Americans are helping us all

By Staff | Apr 8, 2020

Health care professionals and people who work in hospitals, care facilities and pharmacies are very much on the frontlines of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. We all should salute their willingness to put themselves at risk to make certain people who become sick have the care and medicines they need.

There are, however, other workers who are also making a huge contribution to the effort to confront successfully the enormous challenge our nation faces. For the most part, most of us are staying in our homes or close to them. Even so, those individuals who staff the nation’s vitally important food supply chain continue to work. In so doing, they not only make it possible for the rest of us to be safer, but they also put themselves at risk of contracting this illness.

That’s why U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue took the time just a few days ago to go online to pay tribute to these heroes of the war against the virus.

“I just really want to speak from my heart to all you folks out there that are working at the front lines of our food supply chain,” the secretary said. “We’re spoiled in America. You’ve provided such abundant, healthy, wholesome, affordable, available food that we take you for granted. And for all you people from the people who are stocking those shelves, from the people who are driving the trucks to get this food to us, the people who are processing the food and the people who grow the food and all the vendors that supplied our farmers to help them grow this food whether it’s fertilizer or feed or seed or any other input. Thank you so much for what you’re doing.”

That strong message is precisely on target. Right here in Fort Dodge – and all across north central Iowa – we are all benefiting from the selfless efforts of food supply chain personnel. They are helping make certain we can obtain the food and other goods needed to survive during this difficult time.

Farm News joins in thanking these workers for staying on the job so our communities can function as close to normal as possible during this crisis. When you shop for needed items, make certain you take the time to tell these folks that you recognize that their decision to remain on the job is benefiting us all. We’ll get through this pandemic, but our ability to do so is being made much easier by the dedication of supply chain workers. It’s no exaggeration to say that their efforts just now are truly heroic.