Discussions
How much of your food is local?
Posted by timethief • 7/18/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: documentary, exports, food, imports, local-food-production, videos
- Hellmann’s keeps it real in mini documentary
The third year of Hellmann’s “real food” marketing campaign has stepped away from the garden and towards YouTube with a three-minute “mini-documentary” about food imports. (July 13, 2009)
It opens with a dinner table set for a large meal, with a voiceover asking “Looks like a typical Canadian family dinner, but do you know how much of it is actually Canadian?”
The food on the table then moves around to accommodate charts and graphics detailing facts such as 53% of all Canada’s vegetables are imported, and while the population has grown only 15% in 15 years, its food imports increased 160%.
“This impacts far more than your dinner,” the voiceover continues. “It impacts the economy, our environment and our neighbourhoods.”
www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/marketer/article.jsp?content=20090710_1637...
Discussion questions:
(1) Do you know how much of the food you eat is locally produced?
(2) Do you produce any of your own food?
(3) Do you seek out local sources of foods (farms, farmers markets, orchards, u-pick operations)?
(3) What is your response to the video?
- Note: I've been doing some food related research and watching videos, particularly, documentaries. If your are interested in viewing them you will find more info and links in this thread www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss/entry/food-documentary-attacks-industr...
User Comments
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i guess none.
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Oh, that's awful.
Can you garden where you live? -
I'm in the same boat. We grow nothing here. -
@Rich
It's interesting to witness how disturbed I feel by the thought of living anywhere where one cannot grow any of their own food. -
It concerns me too. I grew up with a garden when I lived with my grandparents. Nothing beats fresh. Here, almost all fresh is four to six hours away. Some people have mixed success with tomatoes, but that's about it. Of course, I won't live here forever so there is always that to look forward too.
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I live in the Ag capital of America, so yeah, most of my food is local. I also have my own garden.-
That's good to hear. Now I'm wondering where you live.
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San Joaquin Valley, California.
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Ahhh ... now I can relate. Tx
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Most of it. We grow alot of our own food. and what I buy other wise is local (local meat market and farmers market) The only thing not local would be our bread, flour and cornmeal and I am talking to a farmer right now about getting that from him. I am blessed to have a large Amish community near by so that helps also.-
Well that great news. I also have access to local organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, berries, meats and wild fish. We don't have any cereal grains here though.
I go to our Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. This is what was there today: Apricots, Beets, Blueberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Cherries, Cucumbers, Garlic, Green Beans, Green Onions, Herbs, Leeks, Lettuce, Nectarines, Peaches, Peas, Peppers, Potatoes, Radishes, Raspberries, Salad Greens, Spinach, Strawberries, Summer Squash, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Turnips.
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(1) Do you know how much of the food you eat is locally produced?
I think if I actually tracked how much food in my grocery bag is imported, I'd be seriously shocked.
(2) Do you produce any of your own food?
As I am an urban dweller living in a condo beehive, I have a few herb containers on my deck. I'm not much of a gardener, but there is nothing like the smell of fresh basil. It is also hard to kill oregano.
(3) Do you seek out local sources of foods (farms, farmers markets, orchards, u-pick operations)?
Whenever I can. I'm eating Okanagan cherries as I write this. (For those not familiar with British Columbia, this is a fruit-growing valley in the interior.) I go first for local and seasonal, and then resort to imported to fill in the blanks. I suspect the blanks may be bigger than I think they are.
(3) What is your response to the video?
I love this video. It is brilliantly done. I particularly love the broccoli forest uprooted for housing. I grew up in a rich river delta known as the Fraser Valley and my first job was picking strawberries and raspberries out in those vast, fertile farmlands. Much of the valley is now lost to urban sprawl. It is positively hideous. Sadly, governments are more motivated to support autoworkers than farmers. (Yikes. I may have crossed over to the dark side and made a political statement. Not like me. Kindly disregard. ;-))-
there is nothing like the smell of fresh basil. It is also hard to kill oregano.
I'm a deck gardener. I have a huge deck and grow lots of food (vegetables, herbs, flowers) in containers. It's truly amazing how much one can grow in containers.
I also know the Okanagan well and have preserved and frozen all the cherries my friends brought me. Next with be the most erotic fruit of all -- peaches.
mmmm ... peach salsa - mmmm ... peach and pear pie
thistimethisspace.com/2007/08/07/peaches-the-most-erotic-fruit/
I thought the video was good because it was so informative and so brief. Thanks for participating Cindy. I appreciate it. -
- I wonder if the Americans here have heard about
*ONE HUNDRED MILE DIET* (YUMMY!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJBGHl3-Mzo
100milediet.org/category/the-latest
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Discussion questions:
(1) Do you know how much of the food you eat is locally produced?
I am extremely careful when it comes to shopping for food. In both San Francisco and Massachusetts (where we divide our time between the two), I use organic farms that I personally know or organic farmers markets. We plan and make our dinners around what is available locally at the time and we have literally always done this. In the winter, in MA, I go to Whole Foods and do buy some imported items but I know where they come from (organic farms) and I trust them far more than I do ordinary supermarkets. The *only* meat I ever eat is from organic farms where I pesonally know how the livestock are treated and butchered.
(2) Do you produce any of your own food?
No, we don't. As I mentioned, my husband and I are bicoastal and it is simply too hard to keep gardens going when you are traveling as much as we do. But we do support our local farmstands and farmers markets (and we know all of them, personally.
(3) Do you seek out local sources of foods (farms, farmers markets, orchards, u-pick operations)?
Yes--as I mentioned above.
(3) What is your response to the video?
I thought it was informative. I think people should have much more awareness of where their food comes from. In fact, I am almost neurotic about it and find it hard to believe that people aren't more concerned about the meat industry, etc. Because the meat industry is effing crazy!-
@Melinda
- We plan and make our dinners around what is available locally at the time and we have literally always done this.
We are the same. What's locally available and organically produced is what we craft our meals from.
... it's hard to believe that people aren't more concerned about the meat industry, etc. Because the meat industry is effing crazy!
I agree with you. In the community I live in there is a keen awareness of how the animals are kept and how they are slaughtered. People here refuse to purchase "tortured meat" and we use the meatrix videos to educate kids in our youth groups.
www.themeatrix1.com/
www.themeatrix2.com/
www.moremeatrix.com/
When I'm online I experience many people, who either with live in a fantasy world, imagining that the chicken, pork and beef they are eating came from animals being raised in pastoral family farm settings, when nothing could be further from the truth.
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(1) Do you know how much of the food you eat is locally produced?
Yes. I check labels whenever possible. I'd say about 40-50% comes from less than 100 miles away.
(2) Do you produce any of your own food?
My garden is extremely small, but I grow chilli peppers.
(3) Do you seek out local sources of foods (farms, farmers markets, orchards, u-pick operations)?
Yes. There is a local farmers' market which comes to town every two weeks, and there are sources of fresh strawberries, raspberries, vegetables and eggs in the area.
(4) What is your response to the video?
Appalling. Agribusiness shipping production abroad is a false economy. -
Such reliance on others cannot be good. That is one of the very negative effects of "globalization". And IF the theories regarding peak oil are true, then anyone relying on the importing of any of their essentials are in for a rude awakening.
(1) I have no idea where the local grocery get their meat and produce. I live in an agricultural area of Ohio, so I believe a fair amount of it is from suppliers that could be considered "local". We also have a lot of farmers markets in all of the surrounding towns, in addition to several large farms that sell meat and produce directly.
(2) Not yet, but I am moving into a house (in town, unfortunately), and plan on raising some chickens and growing a garden. The rest of this year will be spent prepping the soil for next year, in addition to building the habitat for my hens.
(3) I don't go out of my way to buy from local growers, but that will probably change. The quality is simply so much better to some of the crap that is sold in the grocery store. Especially Wal-Mart. -
Most of it is local, even the preserved stuff. Lots of agriculture in this little island, especially when it comes to staple food.
The non-local stuff we buy is pretty much canned goods and instant food/drink, and even that isn't a lot, as there are many local producers of preserved foods. -
Not a lot of my food is locally produced. Being on a restricted income now, I cannot eat the same way I used to. I have to buy what is the least expensive and when it's on sale, I buy extra and freeze it. I do most of my shopping at Trader Jo's so most of it is at least organic, natural and HFCS free. Trader Jo's organic is less expensive than Whole Foods and sometimes can be quite a bit cheaper than the large grocery chains. I try to make it to farmer's market when I can, but I have found that it's a little expensive for my current situation.
I do support locally produced, natural foods though and hope my employment situation resolves itself soon. I wish it was more affordable for everyone to have access to locally produced, natural foods. -
Most of the food we buy is locally grown / meat is locally butchered.
Plus I grow a few fruit and vege myself.
At the end of the day the produce may not always be in the perfect shape as mutants that you find in the store, but the taste is far superior. -
I survive on mice and cockroaches I hunt and kill in my own home....-
- Yeah sure ... and your taking up humor blogging, right?
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Discussion questions:
(1) Do you know how much of the food you eat is locally produced?
We have our own vegetable garde so most of the time we harvest what we plant here.
(2) Do you produce any of your own food?
yes we do, mostly vegetables and bananas. we have to buy other fruits at a supermarket.
(3) Do you seek out local sources of foods (farms, farmers markets, orchards, u-pick operations)?
After watching the video , it all makes sense, Wow, imagine having to eat something that has been picked days or even weeks ago. That's horrible.
(3) What is your response to the video?
My mouth fell open. I guess people have to start producing their own food than relying on imports. There are health risks involved here.
TT you made another fine job of posting something that is globally relevant.Keep it up.-
@celticmusicfan
- Thanks for your feedback. I don't think many people are aware of how much transportation is involved when it comes to imported foods, and what the impact of it is on the environment. I also believe that most people don't have a clue about how old the "fresh produce" they are eating really is. That's why I posted this.
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well, as I always tell myself, a key to a sound mind is good food. and ehough of the preservatives too!
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I am also thrilled that a large, international corporation such as Unilever is taking a stand against international agribusiness and working towards awareness of how our food impacts our economy, our environment and our health.
Thanks for posting the link!-
I was amazed too and eager to share the news. You're welcome.
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1. Yes. As a rule minimum of 60 % is local and try to make it 75% or better. Breads, produce, meats, occasional dairy, herbs.
2. Yes. Have a small raised bed garden with only Heirloom & organic variety tomatoes, squash, peppers, kale, chard, watercress, lettuce, arugula, spinach. and a few vegetable plants sporadically around the house(more Heirloom tomatoes, Kabocha squash, acorn squash, basil). Neighbor shares blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and apples.
3. Yes, absolutely..and promote buy local & organic in my book and blogs and show the inherent value & cost savings.
4. Thanks for posting and sharing that video. I feature that video on my site too about the problems with the food and water your consuming...if you want to know more and have a deeper look as well as insight into the organic food industry then go here: squidoo.com/livesmart. The movie hit our town on Friday..good turnouts for it as well.-
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback here and on my post as well. Unfortunately I'm experiencing web hosting problems yet again.
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TT you would be stunned. It is much more than just the "food" than is moved around, imported, exported, and not utilized locally.
The soda pop can is probably made 1000's of miles away from where it is filled. Often when there is a factory that produces these cans just miles away.
Paper is shipped across the country and across the world, even though most areas (not all but most) have paper mills not too far away.
Plastic bottles that you purchase filled with water more than likely was shipped thousands of miles before they were filled with water. Then shipped 1000's of miles back to the area of origination to be sold.
It goes on and on. Food is just one area where local production can be utilized.-
@potatochef
Agreed and thanks so much for sharing that with us.
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I try very hard to buy local, but here is where I go mental: When you become a label-reader and start looking at what is in things that claim to be local, you will find that many of the ingredients are imported. For example, sugar, rice and flour. I might be buying locally made bread, but it still has import ingredients in it. Furthermore, items might be labelled "Product of Canada" when the food item came from elsewhere and was simply packaged in our home country.
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alot of the meat & produce sold here is local, which is nice .. everyone puts in and contributes back to thier own. -
(1) Do you know how much of the food you eat is locally produced?
Yeah most of them are locally produced.
(2) Do you produce any of your own food?
We produce vegetables like tomatoes, aubergines, okras, green plants, potatoes, fruits (mangoes, papaya, guavas, litchis) and herbs in our garden.
(3) Do you seek out local sources of foods (farms, farmers markets, orchards, u-pick operations)?
I live in an agricultural village. Most of the food I eat come from people in my own village. We basically just stop by the fields and pluck the vegetables.
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