I am stuck on the question I asked last week: how is it that some people don't see how desperately we need rain. As I look at fields and work in the garden, as I feel the dryness of the land, I wonder how anyone could miss the need.

This reflection isn't about rain. Rather, I want to understand how someone would be insulated from the dryness of the land.

One person I talked to who did not know we need rain lives on Lake Huron. Lake levels are high. Water is plentiful there. The fact that inland is dry they might well miss.

Driving through Owen Sound on Sunday, I saw a wet patch on the road. Someone had a sprinkler set up to water a dry patch of lawn. I came upon another patch of wet sidewalk later in the day. A city employee had been watering the hanging baskets, and this one was dripping.

I realized that when you have access to town water and a pattern of artificial watering, you aren't going to notice that the land is dry.

Farmers want people to know that corn in the field is stressed by lack of moisture. Whether its grain corn or silage or sweet corn, if it doesn't grow, food production is affected. Farmers know this, but many don't see the connection to their food.

I realized, however, that there are many connections non-farmers do see. They may not know how much corn went into the production of the milk they put in their coffee, but many see that local processors are roasting coffee and are choosing to buy local products. I worry a bit that people may forget that it is grown abroad, but one brand says right on the package that the beans are produced on their farm in Kenya.

When the U.S. put tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel, the government retaliated, and some people decided to not buy produce from the states. Going through the grocery store, they are checking the country of origin for everything they buy. These folks are noticing something about where their food comes from.

This got me thinking. People know a lot about where food comes from. They know which stores have cheaper no-name products. They know which have specialty products available. They know which stores have courteous, helpful, cheerful cashiers.

As a farmer, this feels frustrating because there is a long chain between the field and store shelf. But it is worth noticing that people know a lot. And what they know is what they need on a daily basis. As an aside, that's true for the farmer and garderner too: we need to know how much rain fell to plan our day. Different knowledge is needed for different daily lives.

Years ago, when I was completing my training for ministry, students had to spend a weekend in a rural community. The Saturday included a farm tour. When a dairy farmer commented that bull calves were shipped away while the females were raised for milk production, someone asked why. How is it that this person did not understand that all mammals have the same biological pattern?

Well, in our homes, if we have a cat or a dog, it is normally spayed or neutered. There are good reasons for this practice, but it means that the reproductive patterns are cut off. Many of the animals we live with don't go through the cycles that humans and farm animals do. Many of us are cut off from the biological patterns.

What even city dwellers do see is wild birds. Birds build nests right in downtown. No matter how disconnected from the land we may be, we see the natural cycles of birds.

I still encourage people to shop at farmers' markets, to talk to the people who produce their food, to know what is going on in the local environment. We all need a healthy environment. Understanding the connections of air, water, and land will help us understand why we need to manage pollution, cut down greenhouse gas emissions, create green energy solutions.

People won't make changes to their lifestyle if they don't know why the changes are needed. And I need to understand what others see and what they do not. Deeper understanding is needed in order to protect the world we depend on.

Cathy Hird lives near Walters Falls.