What’s in Your Lunchbox? | God's World News
What’s in Your Lunchbox?
Time Machine
Posted: November 01, 2018

Where many of us live today, people are well fed. Stores are stocked with an amazing variety of affordable food. And those with little money get more help than ever from government and charities.

We will be more thankful to God for what we have if we remember that things have not always been this way.

Until the last hundred years or so, if you asked, “What’s for lunch?” the answer for most of the world’s population would have been, “Not much.”

Why have things improved?

Forecasts: We sometimes complain that it rained on our picnic when the Weather Channel said it would be dry. But until the 20th century, farmers would have been thrilled to have even a few of the weather warnings that technology and broadcasting give us.

Transportation: Want fresh strawberries on your cereal in February? No problem. People once had to settle for food that was grown or raised in season nearby. Now fast trucks, trains, and ships bring us fresh food that is out of season or not produced where we live.

Science: Farmers now have more information and more ways to fight plant diseases and pests. Researchers have developed crop varieties that grow faster, are stronger, and produce more food.

Equipment: Inventions like tractors made it possible for a smaller number of people to grow more food on much larger farms.

Preservation: Until the last hundred years or so, food preservation was part of daily life. People planned ahead in order to have something to eat during cold or dry seasons. And it took a lot of a family’s time and energy. Today, most people who do canning, drying, or fermenting do it as a hobby more than as a necessity. Factories and processing plants do food preservation safely and efficiently now.

Refrigeration: To keep food cool, people used to have ice boxes. Not everyone could afford to have ice delivered every week. Lots of food spoiled before electric refrigerators became available in the early 1900s.