An unofficial holiday passed Monday, and even if you live in Iowa, you might not have realized it. Mandy Studer is the wife of a farmer and an advocate for “Food Check-Out Day.” She says it’s the day that we’ve worked enough to make enough income to pay for all of our food for the year. Studer farms with her husband near Wesley, and says Food Check-Out Day’s early arrival on the calendar is telling. She says it’s two months before they’ve earn enough to pay their tax bill, so it lets us know how fortunate we have it here. Studer works with the Iowa Farm Bureau and other groups to promote the Check-out day. She says some people outside of agricultural states like Iowa complain about the amount of money spent on farm subsidies — but she says people don’t realize those subsidies are part of what keeps food inexpensive. She says it (subsidies) trickle down and people don’t realize it when the go into stores how safe and affordable food is, considering all the stuff the food has to go through. Studer says most people take it for granted that you just go to the store to get food, and says farmers are underappreciated. She says she was a “city girl” until she met her husband and she says farmers are very much underappreciated. The United States Department of Agriculture says Americans spend just 10-percent of their annual income to put food on the table, while other countries can spend more than 50-percent.