Sly Bald Guys Forum
Discussions About Being Bald => General Discussion => Topic started by: thebbqguy on November 16, 2012, 06:56:42 PM
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I spent 5 minutes at the local grocery store this afternoon conducting an informal survey. This survey was meant to validate an article I read on Huffington Post while back.
A short quiz (answers below) --
1. Where does salmon come from?
2. Where do artichoke hearts come from?
3. Water chestnuts?
4. Cactus?
5. What about mushrooms?
6. Mayonaise?
Answers:
1. Thailand or Chili, 2. Peru, 3. China, 4. Mexico, 5. Indonesia, 6. Mexico
Granted these represent only a few brand names and two aisles in the entire 24 aisle store, but I purposely chose brand names to validate the point that a heck of a lot of food you and I eat every day is imported from who know's where. I suspect the scope of the problem would be magnified if I checked more foods and more aisles. This is a MAJOR grocery store chain folks. How does this make you feel?
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That works only if you're not careful to purchase locally as a preference. Perhaps we're odd in Louisiana--particularly considering who we choose for our political leadership--but I can assure you without question all of the food stuffs you specify are primarily local except artichoke hearts--we usually make those from the fresh in the store, and water chestnuts--usually not in Creole or Cajun cooking. We can usually get fresh mushrooms, cactus and salmon from the US. Mayonaise, prefer homemade with virgin olive oil, and a touch of imported French Dijon Mustard--but that may be a bit over the top for the rest of the US.
What this makes me feel like, is--dispite all the problems--I am glad to live in an area that appreciates and loves good and wholesome food preferably locally grown. It also validates the feeling that there is very little "bad food" but there is a whole lot of piss poor preparation and cooking.
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I'm not from the US, and currently I'm not even in my birth country, so I'm kind of an export myself. ;D
BUT I try to search for local food wherever I am at the moment.
This can be done best at food markets where local farmers bring their stuff.
Obviously the choices are limited compared to big supermarket chains, and because I eat a lot of high quality food and protein (and if I don't have time that day to go to the market) I always go to a big supermarket as well without caring much where what came from as long as it's high quality unprocessed food.
To answer your question:
It's a strange feeling to have a fridge full of stuff from 10 different countries.
If I can I shop locally, even organic if it isn't too steep, but I wouldn't trade variety and quality against location...so if a product that I really like to eat isn't available locally I buy it somewhere else even if it comes from Spain or some other country.
Rob
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We make our own mayo here. Our eggs and chicken come from our own flock. We butcher goats and cattle for big meat, the pork comes from a neighbor down the road. The milk/cream comes from the dairy I worked for as a kid and we get many of our cheese from a local farmer. Most of the produce we eat comes from our large garden, we can/freeze/dry much of it and store some in the cellar. An example are the apple chips I eat for snacks almost every day. I picked the apples from our trees and spent lots of time drying them in the food dehydrator. Which, we also make our own jerky from our own animals as well.
I already know that some of the fast food places I eat at for lunch use Brazilian beef (something that I, as a farmer am against). That brings up another point. The feed we use for our stock comes from Washington farms. All the poultry and goat feed is milled about an hour away using only Washington grown products. The hay comes from our land to feed the goats/cattle as well. I know the clementines I get are from somewhere other than the US but that is something I deal with. There are some countries that I don't mind buying products from based on their agricultural and human rights.
One thing that gets me is when I go to a store and see Chilean apples right next to Washington grown apples, burns me up inside!
I work for a local company and we make craft items to sell locally so I am a large supporter of the "Buy local" movement. By purchasing food from local farmers, it keeps the money close to home. I try not to go to some of the large corporate chains when possible but there are times that I can't find things at a local business
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Well, I work at a grocery store and I can tell you that maybe only 10% of the stuff is made/grown in the US.
It's sad, but food from other contries like Chile and Indonesia can be had and sold for cheaper, and what brings customers in the door better than anything else? Low prices.
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I buy locally as much as possible and go to farmers markets weekly. I'm fortunate to live in a small farm agricultural area. I remember a few months ago feeling very guilty when I noticed the beautiful pears I just had have were from Chile...4,000 mile pears.
:-\
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We get a lot of fruit from Chile in the winter. I get a lot of grapes from there during the winter.
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Living in California, we get a lot of our food locally. Most of our produce, beef, chicken and seafood all come from in-state.
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Living in California, we get a lot of our food locally. Most of our produce, beef, chicken and seafood all come from in-state.
Yup, and the best thing about California, in the northern part anyway, is the availability of really good produce like really fresh artichokes and, of course, garlic from Gilroy ;).
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Living in California, we get a lot of our food locally. Most of our produce, beef, chicken and seafood all come from in-state.
Yup, and the best thing about California, in the northern part anyway, is the availability of really good produce like really fresh artichokes and, of course, garlic from Gilroy ;).
I failed to mention the wine...shame on me!
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Schro,
How could you have forgotten California wines!?!?
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Living in California, we get a lot of our food locally. Most of our produce, beef, chicken and seafood all come from in-state.
Yup, and the best thing about California, in the northern part anyway, is the availability of really good produce like really fresh artichokes and, of course, garlic from Gilroy ;).
And some of the best breads and cheeses around are made in the Bay Area. When I'm home on vacation, love going to the Saturday farmers' market at the ferry building in San Francisco.
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Living in California, we get a lot of our food locally. Most of our produce, beef, chicken and seafood all come from in-state.
Yup, and the best thing about California, in the northern part anyway, is the availability of really good produce like really fresh artichokes and, of course, garlic from Gilroy ;).
I failed to mention the wine...shame on me!
Shame on you is right!!
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Is Alioto's down on the wharf still open.
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Living in California, we get a lot of our food locally. Most of our produce, beef, chicken and seafood all come from in-state.
Yup, and the best thing about California, in the northern part anyway, is the availability of really good produce like really fresh artichokes and, of course, garlic from Gilroy ;).
I failed to mention the wine...shame on me!
As they would say on "Monday Night Football" C'mon Man!
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40% of the USA corn crop is used to make ethanol.
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Alioto's still there.
Yeah, major fumble on missing the wine. Besides Napa, the Livermore, Lodi, and Amador County Wine Regions produce some excellent wine. The Lovely Mrs. Schro and I were actually married at Wente Winery in Livermore, decent wine, incredible restaurant.
Other great wineries include Thomas Coyne (Livermore...produces an amazing "Tinto Reserva", spanish meritage), Michael Davip Phillips (Lodi, home of the "Earthquake" series, Gold Medal Winner), and Lava Cap (Amador County).
Cheers!
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We started growing our own food as much as possible. You'd be surprised how much you can grow in an urban backyard. What we do buy in the store is bought with the source country in mind. We buy U.S. almost exclusively and some Canadian vegetables. There are hundreds of greenhouses and hydroponic houses less than 30 miles from us right across the bridge to Canada.
It's a growing trend. Many of my friends are now taking the same approach. We buy at farmer's markets a lot during the season.
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Alioto's still there.
Yeah, major fumble on missing the wine. Besides Napa, the Livermore, Lodi, and Amador County Wine Regions produce some excellent wine. The Lovely Mrs. Schro and I were actually married at Wente Winery in Livermore, decent wine, incredible restaurant.
Other great wineries include Thomas Coyne (Livermore...produces an amazing "Tinto Reserva", spanish meritage), Michael Davip Phillips (Lodi, home of the "Earthquake" series, Gold Medal Winner), and Lava Cap (Amador County).
Cheers!
The Napa Valley & California generally certainly have become a center for wine from the offerings of Two Buck Chuck to the more eye popping prices from the Silver Oak Winery. Bottoms up! O0
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40% of the USA corn crop is used to make ethanol.
Which is why the price of meat is going up. That corn could be used to make feed to fatten up stock or even feed livestock in places like drought-stricken Texas where many cattlemen had to sell their stock for next to nothing, just so the animals wouldn't starve to death. Sure, grass fed animals are better but corn goes into so many feeds. When we were getting our chicken feed by the tons, we had a special recipe that didn't use corn because corn can cause off color in show birds and can be fattening. In the end, it was a better choice to go back to a corn base just because of all the horrible mess with soybeans.
Something that we were talking about at work today were the GMO's, I am one of the people that would like things like that labeled. Sure, the US hasn't produced any studies about it but for an ethical reason I think they should be labeled. I don't want to start an argument about it but that is just my thoughts on it
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Mike,
I agree 100% on the labeling. I might buy it anyway, but at least it's disclosed. Everything should be accurately labeled and let consumers choose.