THE GREATEST NECESSITY

Rex Burress

Simply put, the greatest necessity for life on earth is food. Sunlight, water, soil, and air are important too, and some might say sex, but food stands out as a vital ingredient for every living thing.

Everything is in pursuit of something to eat. What a setup! Each species has its style of anatomy, breathing, locomotion, reproduction, digesting—but food is the common denominator. The competition for digestive substances is intense, and without doubt, things eat things—sometimes one another, and for certain, carnivores eat animals and herbivores eat plants and some eat both. Something is forever after something.

If you're into media watching, you are sure to see a wide range of foods being advertised, and recipes complete with luscious photographic portrayals are presented in Facebook and allied affiliates.

You can't get away from food. We are advised and re-advised everyday about the status of everything from chicken to chard to chives. Yesterday's no-no is today's go-go! You are what you eat...and some things you eat can be fatal.

Most people know that eating wild mushrooms is like Russian Roulette for unskilled foragers, and there are quite a few plants with lethal toxins. Unless the Great Spirit revealed information to the American Indian, the learning process of edibles must have left a lot of food experimenters dead. Even in today's world of mutilated habitats and invasive species, the food nibbler had better be alert lest a poison hemlock or equivalent slip into the fray.

Neither the prehistoric Indian nor the 1803-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition had to contend with introduced plant species in the larder of the wild, and those hunters relied heavily on animal meat. Captain Meriwether Lewis gathered 20 tons of supplies for the keel boat's departure on the Missouri River in 1804, including five tons of parched corn, meal, flour, pork, and 150 pounds of emergency portable dry soup that would last for forty days. After that the 33 members would rely on the plentiful buffalo, deer, elk, and antelope.

Aside from food being the greatest necessity for working members of society, including homeless people gleaning nourishment from odd sources, animals, even in the micro world, as shown in a video of a microscopic amoeba-like blob engulfing another one-celled animal, are involved in a life-long search for food. Everything must have nourishment—from the amoeba to the aardvark to the venus flytrap—food promotes life. Hunt for it, fight for it, compete for it—food is more important than gold.

Not many species have time for leisure, drawn as they are to the pursuit of living, and it's only the well-fed animal that has time for loafing or playing. The species Homo Sapiens, or the modern version, seem to have the most leisure, which is a step toward being civilized. Gulls, during the dead salmon clean-up are so gorged they do a lot of standing around in the river watching and waiting. I have seen gulls play though, by taking a tennis ball to the top of a hill and letting it roll to the bottom...over and over again. Other contented animals can act the same.

In the same sense, otters are continually playful, even as they expertly catch a fish, and being so skilled, they are usually well-fed. I have seen a river otter come up with a fish in front of the Feather River Nature Center, haul it onto a rock, and eat just part of it. There always seems to be enough food-stuffs available to keep a balance of wildlife. What seems exorbitant waste in the birth of a billion beans or such, is soon brought back into balance by the consumers. Just ask the grocery store clerk!

“It was a bold man who first ate an oyster.” --Jonathan Swift

“A gun is a necessity. Who knows if you're walking down a street and you spot a moose? --Pat Paulsen

“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.” --Yogi