We're doing a food distribution today in Millwood with 2nd Harvest. Stewart, the owner of C&S Hydro Huts, brought over 200 gorgeous heads of lettuce from his hydroponic lettuce growing operation in Spokane Valley to be distributed to people in need. Every week he has 800 heads of lettuce that either need to get into a grocery store or wholesaler's supply lines or they go to waste. He has been giving many of the leftovers to a farmer friend who has cows. As we bagged the lettuce for people instead of dumping it in the cow trough he joked, "My new year's resolution is to feed people, not cows."

It's a great example of the tensions that exist between farmers, consumers and the marketplace. A recent University of Arizona study found that we waste nearly half of the food in our country. From farmers throwing the fruits of their hard work into the compost or cow trough and consumers dumping the leftovers, we're wasting a lot of food.

I'm glad that, at least today, one small farmers' food is feeding people, not cows, or worse yet a dumpster.

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