Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for April 30, 2014

Uh… what about chicken, beef, fish and the like? They don’t come from dirt. They (except fish) touch the dirt, but still.

What great conspiratorial glances exchanged between mother and daughter (panel 3)! And yet, Petey, at age eight, doesn’t yet know whence food comes?! Maybe Madeline is just playing Alice….

Food comes from dirt? I may never eat again.

I thought all that crap grew on bushes, except ham hocks.

I once mentioned “root vegetables” to my American History class, and a fair number of them swore, swore they’d never eat anything that grew underground. The rest of the class was snickering.

Mom garden had fresh ripe tomatoes. Dad’s friend’s came over and Barbara wouldn’t eat a tomato that had come from garden dirt and not bought in a store.

Well there it goes.

Just tell Petey food comes from air and water. No really, it does. Most of what is not water in the plant is chained together carbon dioxide in various formations. Of course, it still needs a good bit of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, and some other elements in lesser quantity, but that pales in comparison to the amount of carbon it takes out of the air.