By Kim Baldwin, McPherson County farmer and rancher
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris have captured much of my attention over the past week. If you were to enter our house or office at any given time, you’d likely find the television on in the background with a competition being broadcast.
My social media channels and news outlet feeds have also been full of stories coming from this year’s Olympics. Some content consists of the heart-warming stories of athletes, some are about the controversies, and some are about the food found within the Olympic Village.
Preparing and providing food for so many athletes from all over the world is a challenge I would not want to tackle. The logistics of securing enough food to create an estimated 13-million snacks and meals and ensuring that each athlete’s nutritional needs are met are mind boggling.
I’d also be concerned about my ability to successfully provide a rich variety of options that reflect the cultural makeup and food preferences of the Olympic athletes. Simply put, it’s a huge culinary and nutritional undertaking to create so many meals for so many athletes from all around the globe. I’m glad there are professionals who can do it.
A focus during this Olympics has been to highlight and celebrate tastes from the different regions within France and sourcing from as many food sectors from within the host country.
The next Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
What will be the foods and flavors highlighted then when serving the masses?
There’s no doubt that during the 2028 Olympics the food professionals tasked with providing an astronomical number of meals will be successful in sourcing from the diverse supply of food produced by America’s farmers and ranchers.
There’s no doubt that what is produced will meet the required nutritional needs of these athletes.
There’s also no doubt that there will be an abundance of food options as reflected by the variety of agricultural operations one can find throughout the United States.
Whether it’s meat, eggs, dairy, fruits, vegetables, cereals, oil seeds, protein crops, fish and aquaculture, and even alcoholic drinks, American ag products will be ready to be served.
The Olympics is a place where an exchange of cultures takes place every four years. I can’t wait until 2028 when the vast diversity of our American agricultural products play an integral role in the feeding and fueling of the most elite athletes from around the world as they go for the gold.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
