I love me some "Family Guy." Besides being just funny, it has plenty of social commentary and satire, which I feel is generally on-point. I don't agree with 100% of what Seth McFarlane says with the show...But maybe 99%. And the fact that he makes equal fun of everyone is a plus.
But episode 2 from the current season (9, by the way) had something that made me a little sad. Take a look (starting at 16:05, ending with the scene change):
Since when is American stuff this crappy? I'll admit - I haven't bought a lot of American gadgets because I just don't have the budget, but I've never run into this problem with what products I or others have bought. I think that the most disappointing thing about it was that it'll only discourage people from buying domestic products, which in the end is worse for the economy, the environment, and human rights. My hatred of anything made in China is pretty well documented, so I'll admit I'd have found this fair if the scene was about Chinese products, but what was the last time you heard about an American toy manufacturer putting lead in their toys? Or putting contaminated ingredients in pet food? Or killing over 6000 infants by contiminating formula in order to make it appear to have a high protein content?
I rest my case.
It's just so frustrating to see American products lambasted unfairly in such a popular medium, and in one of the more popular venues of that medium. If there is a problem with American products that I haven't noticed, I hope that "Family Guy" will spur a change; but even if it does, it might still hurt the market - it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one's buying it.
Then again, considering how China has proven time and time again that if you build it cheaply, they will come (even if it kills them), maybe I'm worrying over nothing.
October 10, 2010
September 30, 2010
The Un-COOL-est Place I Know
It's getting to be that time of year again: the time of year where you suddenly realize that a major gift-giving holiday is approaching and you have NO! IDEA! WHAT! TO BUY! Let alone how in the heck you'll afford it. In response to this feeling, when Shannon found something that was both cheap and looked like it might make a good present, he grabbed it. I won't say what it is, or who it's for, but I do bring it up for a reason:
Shannon bought it online - at woot! no less.
And it was made in Poland.
So, point #1: Shannon needs to know that I'm only buying American again. I know we're separate people and all, but I was kinda hoping we would be doing this together, especially considering as how I spend less than 1% of the money in this house. (Until tomorrow...Then I get to be in charge of grocery shopping again!)
But point #2 is more interesting. After I made the mental note to talk to Shannon about buying domestic, I wondered where on earth he would have found out where this particular product was made. I mean, I found out by looking at the packaging, but he didn't have the packaging right there in front of him when he ordered it. All he had was the website.
A quick look at the website reveals that they don't include information about country of origin on their products. Although I'm looking at a different product because they're not selling what Shannon bought anymore, I should imagine that the information they provide is pretty consistent from product to product. So if the website where I'm buying doesn't tell me where the product is made, where could I find it?
Do you really have to ask?
I asked Google.
And Google didn't know! (How is there something - anything! - that Google doesn't know? Are the Evil Overloads slipping? Maybe I shouldn't have said that...)
Okay, so maybe woot! doesn't list country of origin. But maybe they're weird, right? So I checked Amazon.
Nope.
I wanted to check other places, but I guess I'm either totally out of touch, or just too old for the internet, because I couldn't think of any other popular places to buy stuff online. (*shakes cane* Darn-new-fangled-inter-webs!) I did think of eBay and etsy, but since their products are sold by users who post their own product descriptions, country of origin information would be inconsistent at best.
But it still seems crazy to me that there's no listing like this on internet storefronts. The reason we have country of origin labeling is so that we can make more informed choices as consumers, and although it's all well and good for that information to be provided on the packaging, having it on the packing does absolutely nothing for us if we're buying online. I suppose that I could buy something just to get a look at it and return it if it's foreign; or maybe I could find the same thing in a brick-and-mortar store to check the packaging; or maybe I could research the hell out of it online and maybe Google would eventually be able to show me what I'm looking for. But all of those seem REALLY HARD, and doesn't that negate the entire point of shopping on the internet? You're buying online because it's easier and faster to research, find, and buy products online than it is in stores. But if I can't figure out where my stuff is coming from when it's being ordered online, how is that making my life easier?
Question of the day: what do you think is the best way to handle this situation? Stop buying online? Crazy mad online research? Buy and return? Brick-and-mortar research? Or do you have another idea? Comment, my pretties, comment!
Shannon bought it online - at woot! no less.
And it was made in Poland.
So, point #1: Shannon needs to know that I'm only buying American again. I know we're separate people and all, but I was kinda hoping we would be doing this together, especially considering as how I spend less than 1% of the money in this house. (Until tomorrow...Then I get to be in charge of grocery shopping again!)
But point #2 is more interesting. After I made the mental note to talk to Shannon about buying domestic, I wondered where on earth he would have found out where this particular product was made. I mean, I found out by looking at the packaging, but he didn't have the packaging right there in front of him when he ordered it. All he had was the website.
A quick look at the website reveals that they don't include information about country of origin on their products. Although I'm looking at a different product because they're not selling what Shannon bought anymore, I should imagine that the information they provide is pretty consistent from product to product. So if the website where I'm buying doesn't tell me where the product is made, where could I find it?
Do you really have to ask?
I asked Google.
And Google didn't know! (How is there something - anything! - that Google doesn't know? Are the Evil Overloads slipping? Maybe I shouldn't have said that...)
Okay, so maybe woot! doesn't list country of origin. But maybe they're weird, right? So I checked Amazon.
Nope.
I wanted to check other places, but I guess I'm either totally out of touch, or just too old for the internet, because I couldn't think of any other popular places to buy stuff online. (*shakes cane* Darn-new-fangled-inter-webs!) I did think of eBay and etsy, but since their products are sold by users who post their own product descriptions, country of origin information would be inconsistent at best.
But it still seems crazy to me that there's no listing like this on internet storefronts. The reason we have country of origin labeling is so that we can make more informed choices as consumers, and although it's all well and good for that information to be provided on the packaging, having it on the packing does absolutely nothing for us if we're buying online. I suppose that I could buy something just to get a look at it and return it if it's foreign; or maybe I could find the same thing in a brick-and-mortar store to check the packaging; or maybe I could research the hell out of it online and maybe Google would eventually be able to show me what I'm looking for. But all of those seem REALLY HARD, and doesn't that negate the entire point of shopping on the internet? You're buying online because it's easier and faster to research, find, and buy products online than it is in stores. But if I can't figure out where my stuff is coming from when it's being ordered online, how is that making my life easier?
Question of the day: what do you think is the best way to handle this situation? Stop buying online? Crazy mad online research? Buy and return? Brick-and-mortar research? Or do you have another idea? Comment, my pretties, comment!
September 22, 2010
My White Powder of Choice
Do you remember when we were kids, and we were always asked what our favorite things were? Favorite color (green, by the way), favorite food (maguro-don), favorite animal (Ebola virus; unless you point out that viruses aren't strictly "alive," in which case gut flora; unless you point out that bacteria aren't even in the same taxonomic domain as animals, in which case baby ducks, I guess). But no one ever asked you what your favorite chemical was, did they? Well, in my quest to Be Prepared For Things That Will Never Happen, I've chosen a favorite chemical: sodium bicarbonate. That's right, I <3 BAKING SODA.
Although it's closely followed by salt (I mean, seriously, even disregarding it's flavoring qualities, how can you NOT like salt?!), baking soda takes the cake just because it's so useful that I don't quite know what I'd do without it.
Now, understand, I'm a hippie at heart. I recycle copiously, prefer local organic food, use cloth diapers on my baby, and highly value peace, love, and understanding. Okay, so that doesn't make me sound so much like a hippie as a yuppie, but the hippie cred really shines through when it comes to personal hygiene. Enter baking soda. I wash my hair with baking soda. I use baking soda as deodorant. I brush my teeth with baking soda and salt (see - salt!). And I'm prepping to move to toilet cloth (also know as the "family cloth," which term always makes me puke a little inside), which doesn't so much have to do with baking soda as it does with my hippie cred.
...
Moving along.
Baking soda is incredible. It deodorizes. It cleans. It polishes. It's non-toxic and EDIBLE for God's sake. What more could you want out of any given chemical, let alone those in your house? Besides being part of my current plans, it's also part of a lot of my future plans: homemade laundry soap, homemade dish soap, homemade carpet deodorizer, homemade facial exfoliant...
And it's made in New Jersey. Could this stuff possibly be any better?!
Although it's closely followed by salt (I mean, seriously, even disregarding it's flavoring qualities, how can you NOT like salt?!), baking soda takes the cake just because it's so useful that I don't quite know what I'd do without it.
Now, understand, I'm a hippie at heart. I recycle copiously, prefer local organic food, use cloth diapers on my baby, and highly value peace, love, and understanding. Okay, so that doesn't make me sound so much like a hippie as a yuppie, but the hippie cred really shines through when it comes to personal hygiene. Enter baking soda. I wash my hair with baking soda. I use baking soda as deodorant. I brush my teeth with baking soda and salt (see - salt!). And I'm prepping to move to toilet cloth (also know as the "family cloth," which term always makes me puke a little inside), which doesn't so much have to do with baking soda as it does with my hippie cred.
...
Moving along.
Baking soda is incredible. It deodorizes. It cleans. It polishes. It's non-toxic and EDIBLE for God's sake. What more could you want out of any given chemical, let alone those in your house? Besides being part of my current plans, it's also part of a lot of my future plans: homemade laundry soap, homemade dish soap, homemade carpet deodorizer, homemade facial exfoliant...
And it's made in New Jersey. Could this stuff possibly be any better?!
September 21, 2010
Huge Surprise
As promised, I've begun to buy American again. American! I promise! Of course, I went shopping again today for some groceries and forgot to look at the labels...but looking at them now, everything was made in America. Whew!
I realized my mistake while we were making dinner tonight and rushed around checking at labels, when I suddenly remembered that I'd sent Shannon out to get diapers last night. (Killian actually uses cloth diapers, but we've been running low on the ones that fit him, so we occasionally supplement with disposables when he's been especially prolific.) I was horrified by the thought that he might have bought something made anywhere else, which would mean that I would have broken my promise only two days after making it. So I ran to to diaper box, and here's what I found.
Parent's Choice is the brand he selected (he said it was the cheapest), and it happens to be the Wal-Mart brand. I don't know how many of you were aware, but during at least one part of their history, Wal-Mart sold only American goods - that was the way they chose to do business, and I wish more businesses would think like that. However, Wal-Mart has also promised the lowest prices, and buying American isn't always the cheapest way to go, being as how even the most poorly paid Americans have pretty high wages compared to workers other parts of the world. In the end, it came down to keeping the promise to sell only goods made in America, or keeping the promise to sell goods at the lowest price. Guess which won. So lately it's been easier to find products made in Indonesia than in America.
Anyway, when I saw that they were the Wal-Mart brand, my heart sank. Made in China for sure. Still, I searched the box and I found that the diapers are, in fact, made in the good old USA. I was flabbergasted, and relieved. Noticing an old diaper box - Pamper's Snugglers, as a matter of fact - I decided to search it as well. Surely if a company like Wal-Mart can produce diapers in America, then a diapering giant like Pamper's can.
Nope. Made in Mexico.
I realized my mistake while we were making dinner tonight and rushed around checking at labels, when I suddenly remembered that I'd sent Shannon out to get diapers last night. (Killian actually uses cloth diapers, but we've been running low on the ones that fit him, so we occasionally supplement with disposables when he's been especially prolific.) I was horrified by the thought that he might have bought something made anywhere else, which would mean that I would have broken my promise only two days after making it. So I ran to to diaper box, and here's what I found.
Parent's Choice is the brand he selected (he said it was the cheapest), and it happens to be the Wal-Mart brand. I don't know how many of you were aware, but during at least one part of their history, Wal-Mart sold only American goods - that was the way they chose to do business, and I wish more businesses would think like that. However, Wal-Mart has also promised the lowest prices, and buying American isn't always the cheapest way to go, being as how even the most poorly paid Americans have pretty high wages compared to workers other parts of the world. In the end, it came down to keeping the promise to sell only goods made in America, or keeping the promise to sell goods at the lowest price. Guess which won. So lately it's been easier to find products made in Indonesia than in America.
Anyway, when I saw that they were the Wal-Mart brand, my heart sank. Made in China for sure. Still, I searched the box and I found that the diapers are, in fact, made in the good old USA. I was flabbergasted, and relieved. Noticing an old diaper box - Pamper's Snugglers, as a matter of fact - I decided to search it as well. Surely if a company like Wal-Mart can produce diapers in America, then a diapering giant like Pamper's can.
Nope. Made in Mexico.
September 17, 2010
Back from the Dead
It's been a crazy couple of months.
My last post was in May. Since then we moved, had a baby, had our year anniversary, had my twenty-seventh birthday, started a business... Yikes. I'll admit that (especially after the baby) I fell off the wagon while I was gone. Who knows where the stuff I've been buying comes from? But it's time for that lack of knowledge to come to an end. More specifically, it's time to figure out where it comes from, then start buying only American once again. I've been told that (especially with the baby) it'll be hard, but this is something I'm passionate about! So I'm making my vow once again: for a whole year, I'll only buy products made in America. I'm doing this for the economy; I'm doing it for the environment; I'm doing it for the knowledge that what I'm buying could not have been made in a sweatshop, or with slave labor, or contain substances that are blatantly harmful to human life. (I'm looking at you China, and your pile of lead-painted toys!)
Wish me luck!
My last post was in May. Since then we moved, had a baby, had our year anniversary, had my twenty-seventh birthday, started a business... Yikes. I'll admit that (especially after the baby) I fell off the wagon while I was gone. Who knows where the stuff I've been buying comes from? But it's time for that lack of knowledge to come to an end. More specifically, it's time to figure out where it comes from, then start buying only American once again. I've been told that (especially with the baby) it'll be hard, but this is something I'm passionate about! So I'm making my vow once again: for a whole year, I'll only buy products made in America. I'm doing this for the economy; I'm doing it for the environment; I'm doing it for the knowledge that what I'm buying could not have been made in a sweatshop, or with slave labor, or contain substances that are blatantly harmful to human life. (I'm looking at you China, and your pile of lead-painted toys!)
Wish me luck!
May 05, 2010
Locallectual and Rechargeable Batteries
My friend Patrick just introduced me to a very useful website today: Locallectual.com. It's a listing of companies that make and sell their products locally or domestically - perfect! Although it seems that there's not much listed for Salem, I fully intend on filling it up with business I find as I find them. I think this is a resource with a lot of potential, and we just need to support it to help it fulfill that potential.
Also, my apologies for the lack of posts lately: Shannon and I just moved into a new apartment, and getting everything settled with it has been a pain (like moving is). Also, my lovely, American-made nieces are in town, and I can't help but go visit them when I have free time, being as how they live in Idaho and I only get to see them once every couple of months. I'll hopefully have time in the near future to get back to it - we're going to be buying plenty with Spawn on the way!
But to make it up to you now, let me present you with the following:
Question of the day: if the only domestically-produced product option is less environmentally sustainable than product options produced by another country, should one buy the American option anyway?
Story behind the question: Shannon and I are big fans of rechargeable batteries. Although they're a little more expensive up front, they're cheaper in the long run and help us reduce the waste going out of our home. Being as how batteries are toxic waste and can't ethically be thrown away, and since reusing is better than recycling, we feel that even if they were more expensive and less convenient they'd still be worth it - so it's even better that they're cheaper and more convenient! However, we've been looking for rechargeables, and the only ones we can find are made in Japan. On the other hand, all the batteries made in the US are non-rechargeable. So which way to do we go?
Also, my apologies for the lack of posts lately: Shannon and I just moved into a new apartment, and getting everything settled with it has been a pain (like moving is). Also, my lovely, American-made nieces are in town, and I can't help but go visit them when I have free time, being as how they live in Idaho and I only get to see them once every couple of months. I'll hopefully have time in the near future to get back to it - we're going to be buying plenty with Spawn on the way!
But to make it up to you now, let me present you with the following:
Question of the day: if the only domestically-produced product option is less environmentally sustainable than product options produced by another country, should one buy the American option anyway?
Story behind the question: Shannon and I are big fans of rechargeable batteries. Although they're a little more expensive up front, they're cheaper in the long run and help us reduce the waste going out of our home. Being as how batteries are toxic waste and can't ethically be thrown away, and since reusing is better than recycling, we feel that even if they were more expensive and less convenient they'd still be worth it - so it's even better that they're cheaper and more convenient! However, we've been looking for rechargeables, and the only ones we can find are made in Japan. On the other hand, all the batteries made in the US are non-rechargeable. So which way to do we go?
April 24, 2010
Soap! and other Saturday Market Adventures
Another Saturday, another trip to Saturday Market.
We've been eating the eggs we got last week like crazy, so we had to pick up a few more. They're from La Terra Vita, if anyone's curious, which has impressive organic credentials that you can read about on their website. Besides the eggs being yummy, Shannon ans I always look forward to seeing Art at the market, because he has such a gentle nature that it's just easy to interact with him.
Also, we were running low on soap, so we got a bar from the S.L.A.B. stand!
I've been wanting to try out their soap for a long time now, but haven't really had an excuse to go buy any. (I use soap that people give me for Christmas and birthdays; I do not avoid using soap, because that would be gross. And it's saved me from buying soap almost my whole life out of my parents house - so there!) I forgot to ask where they get their oils, but it's fun to think that my soap was just made downtown. And the smell! I wish I could transmit it over the internet. Since the soap's going in Shannon's bathroom, he picked the scent: Plumeria. It's such a gorgeous scent I'm tempted to swap with the non-anti-bacterial soap from Bath and Body Works that Megan gave me the other day. It smells great too, but more manly - so Shannon should take it so I can wash with the yummy-smelling Plumeria!
Maybe I'll just start using his bathroom instead.
I was thinking again today about how lucky we are to live in the Valley. Besides that it's a great place to grow just about anything that CAN grow, the people here have really high standards for the things they buy, and it's easy for us to find things that aren't just domestically produced, but locally grown, raised, or made, and usually from low-impact, recycled, or organic materials. I mean, I started this venture for the economy, but the more I think about it, I'm probably doing more good to the environment. My soap probably spent 2 minutes driving to Saturday Market (and if I'd bought from the S.L.A.B. storefront, it wouldn't even have had that), and was made in a location in town, without weird chemicals; the eggs had to come in from Scio (about 25 miles away) but are also from hens that aren't being fed bizarre animal bi-products or being treated with antibiotics; the apples I bought the other day were grown about an hour and a half or two hours away instead of being flown in from New Zealand... It's a win-win all the way around.
We've been eating the eggs we got last week like crazy, so we had to pick up a few more. They're from La Terra Vita, if anyone's curious, which has impressive organic credentials that you can read about on their website. Besides the eggs being yummy, Shannon ans I always look forward to seeing Art at the market, because he has such a gentle nature that it's just easy to interact with him.
Also, we were running low on soap, so we got a bar from the S.L.A.B. stand!
I've been wanting to try out their soap for a long time now, but haven't really had an excuse to go buy any. (I use soap that people give me for Christmas and birthdays; I do not avoid using soap, because that would be gross. And it's saved me from buying soap almost my whole life out of my parents house - so there!) I forgot to ask where they get their oils, but it's fun to think that my soap was just made downtown. And the smell! I wish I could transmit it over the internet. Since the soap's going in Shannon's bathroom, he picked the scent: Plumeria. It's such a gorgeous scent I'm tempted to swap with the non-anti-bacterial soap from Bath and Body Works that Megan gave me the other day. It smells great too, but more manly - so Shannon should take it so I can wash with the yummy-smelling Plumeria!
Maybe I'll just start using his bathroom instead.
I was thinking again today about how lucky we are to live in the Valley. Besides that it's a great place to grow just about anything that CAN grow, the people here have really high standards for the things they buy, and it's easy for us to find things that aren't just domestically produced, but locally grown, raised, or made, and usually from low-impact, recycled, or organic materials. I mean, I started this venture for the economy, but the more I think about it, I'm probably doing more good to the environment. My soap probably spent 2 minutes driving to Saturday Market (and if I'd bought from the S.L.A.B. storefront, it wouldn't even have had that), and was made in a location in town, without weird chemicals; the eggs had to come in from Scio (about 25 miles away) but are also from hens that aren't being fed bizarre animal bi-products or being treated with antibiotics; the apples I bought the other day were grown about an hour and a half or two hours away instead of being flown in from New Zealand... It's a win-win all the way around.
April 22, 2010
Getting the Courage
A big thanks to Jodi, the Bulk Foods Manager at the Lancaster Winco, for making this post possible.
We finally have flour and sugar again!
Shannon and I went shopping just the other day to pick up a couple very basic supplies (really, who runs out of flour and sugar AT THE SAME TIME?) and discovered that if you ask the Winco people where the bulk food comes from.... THEY CAN TELL YOU.
Yes, I realize how idiotic I sound right now. It should be patently obvious that they'd be able to tell you. The country of origin has to be marked somewhere on the packaging, right? (Well, mostly.) And if the packaging isn't right in your face, it has to be in the back, right? (One would hope.) And if the packaging is in the back, who better to read it for you than the people who work at the store and are allowed to go in the back?
Still, I'm a shy person, and it was hard for me to just go up and ask "Hi! Where's your sugar from?!"
So in the end, I made Shannon do it. He's much better at these things than me.
Turns out our flour comes from Idaho (thanks, Loren and Mindy!), and our sugar comes from sugar beets from Goergia. Sweet!
We also went to the veggie store today during lunch to pick up some fruit. I was excited about getting another pineapple, but the ones they have now are from Costa Rica.
Sad. Days.
The mangos are also still from Mexico, the and the kiwis, grapes, and just about everything else was from Chile. Lame! In the end we grabbed some avocados (yay California!) and went to the checkout. While we were there I took a deep breath and asked the man where their apples come from. And you know what he said? You know what he said?! "Washington and Hood River!" And I was super happy, because I wanted something other than avocados to come home with me. And then he walked out from behind the counter and took us out to the apples and looked at every single kind they had and told me where each one came from, and then did the same thing for the pears, and then cut off a piece of Fuji apple for me to taste, and it was so good I grabbed four and added them to my avocaodos. And while we were checking out we talked about the different kinds of apples, and where most apples come from, and he mentioned Argentina and New Zealand are starting to ship (so I'll have to watch out), and we packed everything into our little bag and I went away much happier than I would have if he wasn't so awesome.
So this just goes to show, boys and girls - ask and you shall receive! :D
We finally have flour and sugar again!
Shannon and I went shopping just the other day to pick up a couple very basic supplies (really, who runs out of flour and sugar AT THE SAME TIME?) and discovered that if you ask the Winco people where the bulk food comes from.... THEY CAN TELL YOU.
Yes, I realize how idiotic I sound right now. It should be patently obvious that they'd be able to tell you. The country of origin has to be marked somewhere on the packaging, right? (Well, mostly.) And if the packaging isn't right in your face, it has to be in the back, right? (One would hope.) And if the packaging is in the back, who better to read it for you than the people who work at the store and are allowed to go in the back?
Still, I'm a shy person, and it was hard for me to just go up and ask "Hi! Where's your sugar from?!"
So in the end, I made Shannon do it. He's much better at these things than me.
Turns out our flour comes from Idaho (thanks, Loren and Mindy!), and our sugar comes from sugar beets from Goergia. Sweet!
We also went to the veggie store today during lunch to pick up some fruit. I was excited about getting another pineapple, but the ones they have now are from Costa Rica.
Sad. Days.
The mangos are also still from Mexico, the and the kiwis, grapes, and just about everything else was from Chile. Lame! In the end we grabbed some avocados (yay California!) and went to the checkout. While we were there I took a deep breath and asked the man where their apples come from. And you know what he said? You know what he said?! "Washington and Hood River!" And I was super happy, because I wanted something other than avocados to come home with me. And then he walked out from behind the counter and took us out to the apples and looked at every single kind they had and told me where each one came from, and then did the same thing for the pears, and then cut off a piece of Fuji apple for me to taste, and it was so good I grabbed four and added them to my avocaodos. And while we were checking out we talked about the different kinds of apples, and where most apples come from, and he mentioned Argentina and New Zealand are starting to ship (so I'll have to watch out), and we packed everything into our little bag and I went away much happier than I would have if he wasn't so awesome.
So this just goes to show, boys and girls - ask and you shall receive! :D
April 16, 2010
Starbucks and Free Coffee!
That's right, yesterday Starbucks was giving away free coffee for anyone that brought in a travel mug.
Question of the day: if I get something for free, does it have to made in America? Or does free stuff fall under the "Goodwil principle?"
Question of the day: if I get something for free, does it have to made in America? Or does free stuff fall under the "Goodwil principle?"
April 14, 2010
The Meat.....
I love WhereIsMyMilkFrom.com so much, I wish that there was a corresponding site for every kind of food product. I've been trying to track down similar sites, but to no avail.
Finally, I just gave up and decided to do a little research with some of the bigger companies. I think it's pretty obvious that our local eggs came from down the road, our local pork is from just out of town....But what if it's not Saturday, so I can't get something I know was grown and raised within 20 miles?
I wrote to Foster Farms to see where their farms are. Although I'm always a little leery about non-organic (or, in the case of fish, non-wild caught) meat, I know it's not always the easiest thing to find or cheapest to buy. One bonus for Foster Farms: a cursory glance at their FAQ shows that any protein that goes into the feed comes from the US, which is a start. We'll see what they have to say about everything else.
Finally, I just gave up and decided to do a little research with some of the bigger companies. I think it's pretty obvious that our local eggs came from down the road, our local pork is from just out of town....But what if it's not Saturday, so I can't get something I know was grown and raised within 20 miles?
I wrote to Foster Farms to see where their farms are. Although I'm always a little leery about non-organic (or, in the case of fish, non-wild caught) meat, I know it's not always the easiest thing to find or cheapest to buy. One bonus for Foster Farms: a cursory glance at their FAQ shows that any protein that goes into the feed comes from the US, which is a start. We'll see what they have to say about everything else.
April 12, 2010
Weekend Recap
I had the perfect balance of busy and relaxing this weekend: Shannon's sister had her baby shower on Saturday, and it was good to see his family again; then on Sunday, Shannon and I relaxed at home.
Stuff bought: a box of lemon sorbet cups from the Dollar Tree, burger and fries for each of us and a beer for Shannon at Golden Valley Brewery in McMinnville, a bottle of Squirt, and a bottle of Langers Cran-Ras juice.
The Dollar Tree surprised me. We went in to buy supplies for the baby shower, but everything was made in China. In the end, Shannon remembered that they carry these yummy lemon sorbet cups that I really like, and we found that they're (surprisingly) made in America. Sweet!
I was happy about dinner at the pub - the menu showed that they're ingredients are local (thank you, Oregon!) and since it's a brewery, we knew that the beer came from the pub itself. Come to think of it, I'm a little curious where they got their ingredients for the beer...But I'll track that down later.
The annoying thing about the weekend was, oddly enough, the juice buying. Shannon and I had decided to go on a drive to break up the monotony of the day, and before leaving grabbed some drinkage. I made a beeline for the juice and tea.
Ocean Spray: no country of origin labeling
Lipton: no country of origin labeling
Tazo: MADE IN THE U.S.A!
I grabbed a bottle of Brambleberry and took a closer look, reveling in the little "Made in the U.S.A." marking.
At which point I noticed it also said: "from imported ingredients."
Damn it, Tazo! Why do you have to be so scrupulously honest?
I consoled myself by looking at the ingredient list, where I knew I'd find "pure cane sugar" as the number two ingredient, which it was. (I hate drinking teas that are full of sugar, a shoe that Tazo sadly fits entirely too well.) In the end I grabbed a bottle of Langers Cran-Ras juice and went back to the car.
Where I discovered that it's second ingredient is sugar as well.
I'm wondering now if I shouldn't have bought Tazo instead. After all, at least they were honest enough to mention that their ingredients may be imported.
Any opinions on this? And does anyone know where I can get American made juice and tea without a ton of sugar?
UPDATE: I looked into Ocean Spray, but couldn't find anything about where they source their ingredients. I did, however, find the MSDS for their cranberry puree. *nerdglee*
Stuff bought: a box of lemon sorbet cups from the Dollar Tree, burger and fries for each of us and a beer for Shannon at Golden Valley Brewery in McMinnville, a bottle of Squirt, and a bottle of Langers Cran-Ras juice.
The Dollar Tree surprised me. We went in to buy supplies for the baby shower, but everything was made in China. In the end, Shannon remembered that they carry these yummy lemon sorbet cups that I really like, and we found that they're (surprisingly) made in America. Sweet!
I was happy about dinner at the pub - the menu showed that they're ingredients are local (thank you, Oregon!) and since it's a brewery, we knew that the beer came from the pub itself. Come to think of it, I'm a little curious where they got their ingredients for the beer...But I'll track that down later.
The annoying thing about the weekend was, oddly enough, the juice buying. Shannon and I had decided to go on a drive to break up the monotony of the day, and before leaving grabbed some drinkage. I made a beeline for the juice and tea.
Ocean Spray: no country of origin labeling
Lipton: no country of origin labeling
Tazo: MADE IN THE U.S.A!
I grabbed a bottle of Brambleberry and took a closer look, reveling in the little "Made in the U.S.A." marking.
At which point I noticed it also said: "from imported ingredients."
Damn it, Tazo! Why do you have to be so scrupulously honest?
I consoled myself by looking at the ingredient list, where I knew I'd find "pure cane sugar" as the number two ingredient, which it was. (I hate drinking teas that are full of sugar, a shoe that Tazo sadly fits entirely too well.) In the end I grabbed a bottle of Langers Cran-Ras juice and went back to the car.
Where I discovered that it's second ingredient is sugar as well.
I'm wondering now if I shouldn't have bought Tazo instead. After all, at least they were honest enough to mention that their ingredients may be imported.
Any opinions on this? And does anyone know where I can get American made juice and tea without a ton of sugar?
UPDATE: I looked into Ocean Spray, but couldn't find anything about where they source their ingredients. I did, however, find the MSDS for their cranberry puree. *nerdglee*
April 09, 2010
Chinese-Swedish-American Candles
The baby shower is tomorrow, so I went out to buy a few last things for presents.
Okay, I'll admit it. I bought them at Goodwill. (It's so cheap and so good - you can't NOT find awesome stuff there!)
Goodwill I think is particularly interesting because - in my opinion, at least - the origin of the things you buy there doesn't really matter. The profit to the manufacturer has already been made; Goodwill takes items for free that have already made their impact on the economy then collects 100% of the profit from selling them, thereby supporting the local economy at 100%.
Take for example, the candles I bought: distributed by Ikea (a Swedish company) and made in China. But totally okay for my conscience, because I'm buying it at Goodwill.
In other news, if I by a product made in China by a Swedish company from an American store, does that create some kind of bizarre paradox?
Okay, I'll admit it. I bought them at Goodwill. (It's so cheap and so good - you can't NOT find awesome stuff there!)
Goodwill I think is particularly interesting because - in my opinion, at least - the origin of the things you buy there doesn't really matter. The profit to the manufacturer has already been made; Goodwill takes items for free that have already made their impact on the economy then collects 100% of the profit from selling them, thereby supporting the local economy at 100%.
Take for example, the candles I bought: distributed by Ikea (a Swedish company) and made in China. But totally okay for my conscience, because I'm buying it at Goodwill.
In other news, if I by a product made in China by a Swedish company from an American store, does that create some kind of bizarre paradox?
More on the pop
I still have no answer about whether Shasta pop is definitely made in America. However, I thought I should point out that, after doing the math, we found that our Shasta + syrup idea is somewhat flawed from a price standpoint, coming in at about $1.68 per liter. (I have no idea how I did the math wrong in the store. WTF?) However, Shannon validly pointed out that our version of pop has fewer, more pronounceable ingredients than standard pop, so we might just stick with it anyway.
In other news, I just started a page, called "Made In the US" in an effort to pull together products that I know are made in America. Considering the plethora of bad sites out there, I'm hoping that this little page will be a beacon of hope of anyone else who's crazy enough to try buying products made only in one country in a global economy.
In other news, I just started a page, called "Made In the US" in an effort to pull together products that I know are made in America. Considering the plethora of bad sites out there, I'm hoping that this little page will be a beacon of hope of anyone else who's crazy enough to try buying products made only in one country in a global economy.
April 08, 2010
Delicious pop
In order to quell Shannon's desire for pop, we decided a few months ago that instead of buying pop (which is pretty expensive), we should instead buy the Torani or DaVinci syrups and mix them into soda water. I'm happy to say that both DaVinci and Torani are made in the U.S! As for the soda water....we bought Shasta. I've looked into it and they're clearly an American company, but I can't figure out if their soda water is actually MADE in America. My best guess so far is that it's bottled in Texas, but that's it. Anyone have any suggestions? (Before you even try, the Shasta website is a waste of time.)
Oh, and before I forget, I for one am happy with the results. As a matter of fact, I recommend it! (Assuming Shasta is made in the US.)
Oh, and before I forget, I for one am happy with the results. As a matter of fact, I recommend it! (Assuming Shasta is made in the US.)
April 07, 2010
Bulk Food Makes Me Crazy
I suppose I should have thought about this before starting the blog, but Shannon and I don't really buy a lot of anything except food. So I'm sure you've noticed that I do a lot of talking about food.
This post is no different.
Bulk Food Makes Me Crazy.
When I was a kid, bulk food made me crazy because my mom would spend forever in the bulk food aisles, picking out the cheapest stuff. With no fancy packaging or bright colors, it was the most boring part of the whole grocery trip, which was already the most boring part of my whole life at that time.
When I grew up, bulk food made me crazy because I realized - as my mom had - that bulk food tends to be SO MUCH CHEAPER than the packaged stuff, and if you recycle the bags, there's less environmental impact! Woot!
Now that I've started this Buying American experiment, bulk food makes me crazy because NONE of it has country of origin labeling! Some has info on the distributor, but most of the time even that's missing. Not only do I not know where any of the individual ingredients are from, but I can't even research where the ingredients were combined. I want bulk food because it's cheap, but I don't have the time or energy to scour the internet for information that probably doesn't exist for public consumption. At Life Source, the natural foods store in town, they at least say (sometimes) that distributor info is available by request, but as we've seen, that doesn't really help either.
Why, bulk foods? WHY???
This post is no different.
Bulk Food Makes Me Crazy.
When I was a kid, bulk food made me crazy because my mom would spend forever in the bulk food aisles, picking out the cheapest stuff. With no fancy packaging or bright colors, it was the most boring part of the whole grocery trip, which was already the most boring part of my whole life at that time.
When I grew up, bulk food made me crazy because I realized - as my mom had - that bulk food tends to be SO MUCH CHEAPER than the packaged stuff, and if you recycle the bags, there's less environmental impact! Woot!
Now that I've started this Buying American experiment, bulk food makes me crazy because NONE of it has country of origin labeling! Some has info on the distributor, but most of the time even that's missing. Not only do I not know where any of the individual ingredients are from, but I can't even research where the ingredients were combined. I want bulk food because it's cheap, but I don't have the time or energy to scour the internet for information that probably doesn't exist for public consumption. At Life Source, the natural foods store in town, they at least say (sometimes) that distributor info is available by request, but as we've seen, that doesn't really help either.
Why, bulk foods? WHY???
Pumpkin-Eater
I cheated. :(
For my sister-in-law's baby shower, I was asked to bring a couple gifts for people who win the games, and bath salts came to mind first. I make my own bath salts, because they're cheap, they're easy, they're girly, and they're great. However, who in the heck wants plain old white salt?
So I bought Himilayan Salt.
Who wants to guess where Himilayan salt comes from?
That's right, the Himilayas!
NOTE FOR THE CURIOUS: The Himilayas are not in America.
:(
For my sister-in-law's baby shower, I was asked to bring a couple gifts for people who win the games, and bath salts came to mind first. I make my own bath salts, because they're cheap, they're easy, they're girly, and they're great. However, who in the heck wants plain old white salt?
So I bought Himilayan Salt.
Who wants to guess where Himilayan salt comes from?
That's right, the Himilayas!
NOTE FOR THE CURIOUS: The Himilayas are not in America.
:(
April 05, 2010
New Considerations
Yesterday, Jason and I discussed the questions I posted on my blog Saturday, and I thought he had an interesting take on them.
If I buy something that was produced locally that has several different ingredients (like bread), do I have to make sure that the place where I buy also uses ingredients only from the US?
and
Can we eat at restaurants that don't get their food from domestic sources?
Jason feels there's a continuum here, with "fully foreign" on one side and "fully domestic" on the other. Broken down roughly, the scale runs like this:
Produced in Foreign Country from Foreign Goods
Produced in Foreign Country from Domestic Goods
Produced in Foreign Country then Imported and Modified Domestically
Produced Domestically from Foreign Goods
Produced Domestically from Domestic Goods
These are just the big obvious gradations on the scale; obviously there are shades of grey that apply, especially with food. Jason feels that it's most important to lean strongest toward a domestic influence in your products, since they mean more American jobs, etc. However, that doesn't exactly answer my question. Obviously the most "pure" philosophy here is to go with domestic products that have gone through all their manufacture and processing in the US. However, does this mean that I need to necessarily stick with this extreme? After all, a product made from American goods in a foreign facility (like the steel wool from my previous post) is still sort of American - so is that good enough? Considering that I'm trying to work out what's best for the American economy as a whole, that wouldn't be good enough, and technically neither would getting foreign food through an American third party. Let's just hope I don't starve to death.
If bulk foods don't tell us where they come from, should we avoid them completely?
Jason thinks it shouldn't really matter. After all, economically speaking, I'm providing jobs just by buying these items from an American company, right? I disagree here: that would mean that I can end the experiment now, since I don't import any of my own products, so I'm helping American somewhere along the line. That's good enough, right? For this experiment, I'm afraid that's a no.
Can I buy products from companies that aren't American, if their products were made in the US?
Another tricky question, but Jason and I both felt that this one at least is in the clear - assuming, of course, that the ingredients in this product are from domestic sources as well. After all, a cheeseburger with beef from Missouri, veggies from California and a bun from New Jersey, all prepared by American workers is a literally all-American burger, even if the company selling it to me is from Germany. It's like being born and raised in America by immigrant parents - it doesn't make you any less American. (Of course, this argument necessarily begs its own questions - "But where is the ad agency from?" "How much profit is shipped overseas?" "Who provides the transportation?" - but those are questions that I feel seriously over think the problem, so I won't worry about them now. Maybe at the end of the year, if I haven't died of starvation.)
The best aspect of talking over these questions out with Jason, though, was that I came to realize that it's not just economic factors that figure into why I want to run this experiment. Although the American economy can use all the help it can get right now, buying American should assure that I'm getting products that were produced by workers who are paid fairly for their work, work within laws to protect them from dangerous conditions, and are not subjected to lives as slaves. These products should also be held to the particular standards that US imposes upon manufacturers which, while not necessarily required to be of the highest possible quality, are at least of a quality that I can research and find laws for. Considering some of the quality issues that we've run into lately with Chinese products, this is a particularly strong point.
Unfortunately, as I was researching the labeling laws in the US today, I found that some of those assumptions above are not necessarily the case.
Here's a video from the USDA about the new labeling laws for food:
And here's another video, pointing out the loopholes:
You can see why I'm beginning to lean more toward "100% Produced in America." The worst part about the loopholes in the regulations is that in order to find out where my food is from, I have to ignore my favorite kinds of stores: the little local mom and pop places that are the backbone of the micro economies in any city. And, although I understand that these videos in particular relate only to food, it seems that similar labeling laws apply to any product: as long as it's produced in it's final, salable form in the US, it can be marked "Made in the US," even if every part comes from another country.
(You may have noticed that at the end of the second video, the narrator says that "you have to put [where ingredients are from] on the website." Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that even food manufacturers are required to put a country of origin for their ingredients on either their own websites or the FDA website that's pictured in the video. Lamez.)
If I buy something that was produced locally that has several different ingredients (like bread), do I have to make sure that the place where I buy also uses ingredients only from the US?
and
Can we eat at restaurants that don't get their food from domestic sources?
Jason feels there's a continuum here, with "fully foreign" on one side and "fully domestic" on the other. Broken down roughly, the scale runs like this:
Produced in Foreign Country from Foreign Goods
Produced in Foreign Country from Domestic Goods
Produced in Foreign Country then Imported and Modified Domestically
Produced Domestically from Foreign Goods
Produced Domestically from Domestic Goods
These are just the big obvious gradations on the scale; obviously there are shades of grey that apply, especially with food. Jason feels that it's most important to lean strongest toward a domestic influence in your products, since they mean more American jobs, etc. However, that doesn't exactly answer my question. Obviously the most "pure" philosophy here is to go with domestic products that have gone through all their manufacture and processing in the US. However, does this mean that I need to necessarily stick with this extreme? After all, a product made from American goods in a foreign facility (like the steel wool from my previous post) is still sort of American - so is that good enough? Considering that I'm trying to work out what's best for the American economy as a whole, that wouldn't be good enough, and technically neither would getting foreign food through an American third party. Let's just hope I don't starve to death.
If bulk foods don't tell us where they come from, should we avoid them completely?
Jason thinks it shouldn't really matter. After all, economically speaking, I'm providing jobs just by buying these items from an American company, right? I disagree here: that would mean that I can end the experiment now, since I don't import any of my own products, so I'm helping American somewhere along the line. That's good enough, right? For this experiment, I'm afraid that's a no.
Can I buy products from companies that aren't American, if their products were made in the US?
Another tricky question, but Jason and I both felt that this one at least is in the clear - assuming, of course, that the ingredients in this product are from domestic sources as well. After all, a cheeseburger with beef from Missouri, veggies from California and a bun from New Jersey, all prepared by American workers is a literally all-American burger, even if the company selling it to me is from Germany. It's like being born and raised in America by immigrant parents - it doesn't make you any less American. (Of course, this argument necessarily begs its own questions - "But where is the ad agency from?" "How much profit is shipped overseas?" "Who provides the transportation?" - but those are questions that I feel seriously over think the problem, so I won't worry about them now. Maybe at the end of the year, if I haven't died of starvation.)
The best aspect of talking over these questions out with Jason, though, was that I came to realize that it's not just economic factors that figure into why I want to run this experiment. Although the American economy can use all the help it can get right now, buying American should assure that I'm getting products that were produced by workers who are paid fairly for their work, work within laws to protect them from dangerous conditions, and are not subjected to lives as slaves. These products should also be held to the particular standards that US imposes upon manufacturers which, while not necessarily required to be of the highest possible quality, are at least of a quality that I can research and find laws for. Considering some of the quality issues that we've run into lately with Chinese products, this is a particularly strong point.
Unfortunately, as I was researching the labeling laws in the US today, I found that some of those assumptions above are not necessarily the case.
Here's a video from the USDA about the new labeling laws for food:
And here's another video, pointing out the loopholes:
You can see why I'm beginning to lean more toward "100% Produced in America." The worst part about the loopholes in the regulations is that in order to find out where my food is from, I have to ignore my favorite kinds of stores: the little local mom and pop places that are the backbone of the micro economies in any city. And, although I understand that these videos in particular relate only to food, it seems that similar labeling laws apply to any product: as long as it's produced in it's final, salable form in the US, it can be marked "Made in the US," even if every part comes from another country.
(You may have noticed that at the end of the second video, the narrator says that "you have to put [where ingredients are from] on the website." Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that even food manufacturers are required to put a country of origin for their ingredients on either their own websites or the FDA website that's pictured in the video. Lamez.)
Confusing Surprises
Shannon ran out to get me some steel wool so I can clean up the old cast iron skillets, season them, and make some corned beef hash! As if it wasn't confusing enough that there wasn't any steel wool at Winco, he found this awesome labelling on the steel wool at Wal-Mart:
U.S. Steel, Product of Japan
So, we made some steel, sent it to Japan, where it was made into steel wool, then they sent it back to us? Maybe this is just me being crazy, but wouldn't it make more sense to keep the steel in the US and make the steel wool ourselves? I could maybe see sending the steel someplace where the wages are really low, like Southeast Asia, to save the company a couple pennies, but Japan? They're a huge economic force with minimum wage restrictions like we are! The more I find about the business of importing and exporting products to and from the US, the more confusing the whole thing seems. At least it's becoming more and more clear why America's economic crisis affected the entire world.
U.S. Steel, Product of Japan
So, we made some steel, sent it to Japan, where it was made into steel wool, then they sent it back to us? Maybe this is just me being crazy, but wouldn't it make more sense to keep the steel in the US and make the steel wool ourselves? I could maybe see sending the steel someplace where the wages are really low, like Southeast Asia, to save the company a couple pennies, but Japan? They're a huge economic force with minimum wage restrictions like we are! The more I find about the business of importing and exporting products to and from the US, the more confusing the whole thing seems. At least it's becoming more and more clear why America's economic crisis affected the entire world.
April 04, 2010
End of the day
Shannon and I wound up going to Prudence Uncorked for drinks after we had dinner. It was fun - we got to see Scott, the great and magnificent, who made me the best virgin margaritas that have ever existed, and discussed some of my ideas for the blog with us. He also has no idea on our conundrums. If anyone wants to hazard an opinion on those, I'd love to hear them!
There was a great looking cheese platter with all local cheese, as well as apples and nuts from a source Scott wasn't sure about. Sadly, we were pretty sure that, given the season, they were likely from the southern hemisphere, so I didn't order. I really wanted the cheese, but what's the point of getting cheese without something to taste it with?
There was a great looking cheese platter with all local cheese, as well as apples and nuts from a source Scott wasn't sure about. Sadly, we were pretty sure that, given the season, they were likely from the southern hemisphere, so I didn't order. I really wanted the cheese, but what's the point of getting cheese without something to taste it with?
April 03, 2010
Buying American Day 1
What a heck of a day.
After our most recent grocery trip (a couple days before Shannon and I decided to buy US products only) we still had a few items we weren't able to find at Winco, and I was so excited to get started on this grand adventure that I decided today would be the day we'd go pick up those few missing extras. By the time we got back (4 1/2 hours later), we were exhausted and happy to not be in grocery stores anymore. We'd also discovered a few problem areas we're going to have to address.
But let's tell this story in chronological order.
Before we left, I pulled up my grocery list and began to write down the places we were going to get our food.
If I buy something that was produced locally that has several different ingredients (like bread), do I have to make sure that the place where I buy also uses ingredients only from the US?
It was a hard question to answer. I mean, the bread is made in the US - no question! - but do I need to be vigilant about where the ingredients came from? If I was buying generic bread from Winco, I wouldn't have a second thought about it: if it says "Made in the USA" on the bag, that's good enough for me. But because Great Harvest has a physical location where I can meet the people who made the bread I'm about to buy face-to-face, shouldn't I exercise more caution? Or should I instead be researching the bread I want to buy from Other Company to make sure they're using all domestic ingredients?
In the end, I decided that I'd ask at Great Harvest, then decide while I was there what was important. Decision neatly avoided. (Existentialism FAIL.)
When we arrived at Life Source for the cumin, though, I found that another question was waiting for me there. Life Source has a great bulk foods section, with tons of different teas, spices, salts, flours, etc. (Shannon and I later wondered why we didn't try buying sugar there...but were too exhausted to go back.) We made a beeline for the spices and found the cumin, only to discovered that because it was a bulk item, there wasn't any specific info about where it came from.
If bulk foods don't tell us where they come from, should we avoid them completely?
In the end, we decided that it was an American distribution company, so that should be close enough. But upon researching the distributor at home, I found that maybe that wasn't a good idea. Seems our cumin was distributed by Frontier Natural Products Co-op, a company that carries herbs, spices, teas, and other foods from around the world. They seem like a company I'd like - though the notably don't mention that they're products are fair trade, which raises a bit of a red flag for me - but sadly they don't get their cumin from the US. According to their site, their major cumin distributors are in Turkey, India, and China.
Sorry, US.
After Life Source, we headed to Saturday Market, which I was excited for. I mean, how much more sure can I be that something's grown in the US if it's just grown a few miles from where I live, right?
But when we got there, only a fraction of the whole lot was taken up, and only one stand had veggies: onions, potatoes, a few other things; all things we either already had or didn't need. We also found a gentleman who sells eggs, but since we just bought eggs a few days ago, there was no reason to buy from him either. In the end, the only thing we bought was a little honey bear full of blackberry honey from W.C. Kester Apiaries from Rickreall, OR. (Sorry, no site to link to.) And it wasn't so much that we needed honey as we needed info. The gentleman there told us that although there would be at least a smattering of people at the Market every week, we were unlikely to find any fruits or veggies there till mid-May at the earliest.
(On a side note, we also determined that he doesn't require the services of someone who really loves bees but is not a trained beekeeper, but that other beekeepers in the area might. He provided us with a URL for finding these people. Wahoo!)
So we decided to instead get veggies at Morrow & Sons Produce on Silverton Rd. (the veggie store across from Mom's veggie store, where they don't charge us to use a debit card, and which also don't have a site to link to), and headed to lunch at Prudence Uncorked, where the great and mystical Scott seems to be tending bar. It was closed, but it brought another question to mind:
Can we eat at restaurants that don't get their food from domestic sources?
They are, in fact, local business, but along the same vein as Great Harvest, do I need to know that they get their food only from domestic sources? Luckily for us in the Willamette Valley there's a reasonably good selection restaurants that source locally, but if we ever go out of the Valley, can we eat at local places that buy food from outside the country? If I'm trying to help the country, is it better to support local business that doesn't support American farmers, or is it better to support American farmers myself by cooking with their produce on my own and to hell with the local businesses that support foreign economies rather than the domestic one?
After the let down at the restaurant we headed to Great Harvest...and there was no parking. We were still cold after our trip to Saturday Market and didn't want to deal with parking blocks away for a loaf of bread we could buy on Monday, so we passed it up for now. However, according to their website, the wheat at least comes from Montana, so that's a start. But where do they get their yeast? Their salt? Is the "something sweet" in their five ingredients actually a local honey when you buy from the Salem location? And the bigger question: should I care?
We headed to Safeway next, and I was dubious about my ability to find what we need there. I mean, everything so far had been little local stores; Safeway's a national chain. If anyone, they should be cowing to The Man over in China, right?
Milk first. Shannon likes the O Organics brand, and luckily it says right on the label: Made in the US. Sweet! (Of course, Shannon said I shouldn't be surprised our dairy is domestic. I guess that's true. How totally dead would milk be if you had to wait for it to come from Indonesia?) Next was butter, which was a little more tricky. There was nothing telling me where it had been made, only distributor information. I saw that the O Organics butter is distributed by Lucerene, and looking at their butter I saw that it's made in the US, so I decided that this info combined with the "dairy principle" Shannon mentioned was enough reason to believe the butter was made in America, too. I've since confirmed on the internet that the O Organics butter comes from cream produced by the same cows that make our milk, so we're in the clear.
Next up, edamame. For those who weren't aware, edamame is just soybeans. Being as how the US is the main producer of soy in the world (almost a third!), I figured this would be the easy one. Wrong. Every package I found: Made in China. But according to Wikipedia, China only produces 7% of the total world consumption of soybeans! So where are the American soybeans going? In the end, I had to pass them up; I just couldn't find a package that wasn't made in Chine. (Also, upon returning home, I found that my last remaining bag, bought at Winco, was also made in China. WTF?!)
Next, sugar. I made a beeline for C&H - if anyone has American sugar, it would be them! Turns out no. They had sugar from all over South America, but nothing from the US. In the end, the only sugar we could find from the US was the Safeway brand, but since it's finely granulated, it's not what we need. (In that moment, Shannon and I both realized why Alton Brown always says to measure by weight rather than volume. I almost suggested we buy a scale....but decided that would take us from the task at hand. Maybe a scale another time.)
Lastly, Saltines. This time we could only find distributors - no one would tell us where the crackers were made. Except Safeway brand. Which was made in the US again. I have to say that I'm gaining a little more respect for them, big chain or no. In the end, though, we decided that Shannon would make them from scratch, like he's been promising to do for a couple months now. We'll see how it goes.
Finally, off the the veggie store. Going here scared me almost as much as going to Safeway. Although the Valley is a great place to get fresh local produce, we're just coming off the winter, so nothing's growing yet. When we walked up, I just prayed that California would cover us on this one: I hear they're already up over 80 degrees in L.A. Here's what I found:
Mangos: Mexico
Filipino mangos: Mexico
Mandarin organes: California! Woot!
Pineapples: Hawaii! Woot!
Tomatoes: Mexico
Avocados: California!
All others (broccoli, zucchini, cabbage): who knows?
I can already tell that this produce thing is going to be difficult.
We grabbed some oranges, avocados, and a pineapple and headed home. As we went, I came up with another question:
Can I buy products from companies that aren't American, if their products were made in the US?
This isn't something I ran into today, but an important question. For example, if I find a chocolate bar made in the US, but produced by Nestle (a Swiss company), is it okay to buy?
I have to admit that I wasn't expecting this whole thing to be quite so difficult. Maybe it's just food that's this difficult, but I doubt it. Looks like this'll be an interesting year.
After our most recent grocery trip (a couple days before Shannon and I decided to buy US products only) we still had a few items we weren't able to find at Winco, and I was so excited to get started on this grand adventure that I decided today would be the day we'd go pick up those few missing extras. By the time we got back (4 1/2 hours later), we were exhausted and happy to not be in grocery stores anymore. We'd also discovered a few problem areas we're going to have to address.
But let's tell this story in chronological order.
Before we left, I pulled up my grocery list and began to write down the places we were going to get our food.
- Bread (Great Harvest)
- Whole Cumin (Life Source)
- Veggies (Saturday Market)
- Milk (Safeway)
- Edamame (Safeway)
- Sugar (Safeway)
- Butter (Safeway)
- Saltines (Safeway)
If I buy something that was produced locally that has several different ingredients (like bread), do I have to make sure that the place where I buy also uses ingredients only from the US?
It was a hard question to answer. I mean, the bread is made in the US - no question! - but do I need to be vigilant about where the ingredients came from? If I was buying generic bread from Winco, I wouldn't have a second thought about it: if it says "Made in the USA" on the bag, that's good enough for me. But because Great Harvest has a physical location where I can meet the people who made the bread I'm about to buy face-to-face, shouldn't I exercise more caution? Or should I instead be researching the bread I want to buy from Other Company to make sure they're using all domestic ingredients?
In the end, I decided that I'd ask at Great Harvest, then decide while I was there what was important. Decision neatly avoided. (Existentialism FAIL.)
When we arrived at Life Source for the cumin, though, I found that another question was waiting for me there. Life Source has a great bulk foods section, with tons of different teas, spices, salts, flours, etc. (Shannon and I later wondered why we didn't try buying sugar there...but were too exhausted to go back.) We made a beeline for the spices and found the cumin, only to discovered that because it was a bulk item, there wasn't any specific info about where it came from.
If bulk foods don't tell us where they come from, should we avoid them completely?
In the end, we decided that it was an American distribution company, so that should be close enough. But upon researching the distributor at home, I found that maybe that wasn't a good idea. Seems our cumin was distributed by Frontier Natural Products Co-op, a company that carries herbs, spices, teas, and other foods from around the world. They seem like a company I'd like - though the notably don't mention that they're products are fair trade, which raises a bit of a red flag for me - but sadly they don't get their cumin from the US. According to their site, their major cumin distributors are in Turkey, India, and China.
Sorry, US.
After Life Source, we headed to Saturday Market, which I was excited for. I mean, how much more sure can I be that something's grown in the US if it's just grown a few miles from where I live, right?
But when we got there, only a fraction of the whole lot was taken up, and only one stand had veggies: onions, potatoes, a few other things; all things we either already had or didn't need. We also found a gentleman who sells eggs, but since we just bought eggs a few days ago, there was no reason to buy from him either. In the end, the only thing we bought was a little honey bear full of blackberry honey from W.C. Kester Apiaries from Rickreall, OR. (Sorry, no site to link to.) And it wasn't so much that we needed honey as we needed info. The gentleman there told us that although there would be at least a smattering of people at the Market every week, we were unlikely to find any fruits or veggies there till mid-May at the earliest.
(On a side note, we also determined that he doesn't require the services of someone who really loves bees but is not a trained beekeeper, but that other beekeepers in the area might. He provided us with a URL for finding these people. Wahoo!)
So we decided to instead get veggies at Morrow & Sons Produce on Silverton Rd. (the veggie store across from Mom's veggie store, where they don't charge us to use a debit card, and which also don't have a site to link to), and headed to lunch at Prudence Uncorked, where the great and mystical Scott seems to be tending bar. It was closed, but it brought another question to mind:
Can we eat at restaurants that don't get their food from domestic sources?
They are, in fact, local business, but along the same vein as Great Harvest, do I need to know that they get their food only from domestic sources? Luckily for us in the Willamette Valley there's a reasonably good selection restaurants that source locally, but if we ever go out of the Valley, can we eat at local places that buy food from outside the country? If I'm trying to help the country, is it better to support local business that doesn't support American farmers, or is it better to support American farmers myself by cooking with their produce on my own and to hell with the local businesses that support foreign economies rather than the domestic one?
After the let down at the restaurant we headed to Great Harvest...and there was no parking. We were still cold after our trip to Saturday Market and didn't want to deal with parking blocks away for a loaf of bread we could buy on Monday, so we passed it up for now. However, according to their website, the wheat at least comes from Montana, so that's a start. But where do they get their yeast? Their salt? Is the "something sweet" in their five ingredients actually a local honey when you buy from the Salem location? And the bigger question: should I care?
We headed to Safeway next, and I was dubious about my ability to find what we need there. I mean, everything so far had been little local stores; Safeway's a national chain. If anyone, they should be cowing to The Man over in China, right?
Milk first. Shannon likes the O Organics brand, and luckily it says right on the label: Made in the US. Sweet! (Of course, Shannon said I shouldn't be surprised our dairy is domestic. I guess that's true. How totally dead would milk be if you had to wait for it to come from Indonesia?) Next was butter, which was a little more tricky. There was nothing telling me where it had been made, only distributor information. I saw that the O Organics butter is distributed by Lucerene, and looking at their butter I saw that it's made in the US, so I decided that this info combined with the "dairy principle" Shannon mentioned was enough reason to believe the butter was made in America, too. I've since confirmed on the internet that the O Organics butter comes from cream produced by the same cows that make our milk, so we're in the clear.
Next up, edamame. For those who weren't aware, edamame is just soybeans. Being as how the US is the main producer of soy in the world (almost a third!), I figured this would be the easy one. Wrong. Every package I found: Made in China. But according to Wikipedia, China only produces 7% of the total world consumption of soybeans! So where are the American soybeans going? In the end, I had to pass them up; I just couldn't find a package that wasn't made in Chine. (Also, upon returning home, I found that my last remaining bag, bought at Winco, was also made in China. WTF?!)
Next, sugar. I made a beeline for C&H - if anyone has American sugar, it would be them! Turns out no. They had sugar from all over South America, but nothing from the US. In the end, the only sugar we could find from the US was the Safeway brand, but since it's finely granulated, it's not what we need. (In that moment, Shannon and I both realized why Alton Brown always says to measure by weight rather than volume. I almost suggested we buy a scale....but decided that would take us from the task at hand. Maybe a scale another time.)
Lastly, Saltines. This time we could only find distributors - no one would tell us where the crackers were made. Except Safeway brand. Which was made in the US again. I have to say that I'm gaining a little more respect for them, big chain or no. In the end, though, we decided that Shannon would make them from scratch, like he's been promising to do for a couple months now. We'll see how it goes.
Finally, off the the veggie store. Going here scared me almost as much as going to Safeway. Although the Valley is a great place to get fresh local produce, we're just coming off the winter, so nothing's growing yet. When we walked up, I just prayed that California would cover us on this one: I hear they're already up over 80 degrees in L.A. Here's what I found:
Mangos: Mexico
Filipino mangos: Mexico
Mandarin organes: California! Woot!
Pineapples: Hawaii! Woot!
Tomatoes: Mexico
Avocados: California!
All others (broccoli, zucchini, cabbage): who knows?
I can already tell that this produce thing is going to be difficult.
We grabbed some oranges, avocados, and a pineapple and headed home. As we went, I came up with another question:
Can I buy products from companies that aren't American, if their products were made in the US?
This isn't something I ran into today, but an important question. For example, if I find a chocolate bar made in the US, but produced by Nestle (a Swiss company), is it okay to buy?
I have to admit that I wasn't expecting this whole thing to be quite so difficult. Maybe it's just food that's this difficult, but I doubt it. Looks like this'll be an interesting year.
April 02, 2010
Begin the Experiment!
So Shannon (my husband) and I were walking through Wal-Mart today to get laundry bags. We picked up the kind that we like and headed to the register. As we were waiting in line, I remembered the old days when Wal-Mart was popular at least in part because they sold only items made in America. I checked the laundry bags. Made in China.
I've always been a little disappointed in Americans in that we're so willing to support another economy, and of late I've been even more disappointed because it's preventing us from supporting our own economy - and I don't think anyone would disagree with me that it could use the help. I thought how great it would be to buy only American...and then I thought how hard it would probably be. I mean really, is there anything that's made in America anymore? When I look at packaging, I actually find it surprising when I find something made in America, which is just sad. When our unemployment is through the roof, wouldn't it make more sense for us to be creating jobs in our economy instead of someone else's?
So I decided to try a little experiment: buying only American for a year. It's sort of along the lines of Living Plastic Free and I think a good idea, if probably a hard one to achieve.
I'm already beginning to wonder what I'm going to do about certain things. For example, food. I know that it's reasonably easy to get produce in the spring, summer, and fall from American sources, especially if you're buying locally. But what about the winter? And what about food that's not local? Living in Oregon there are plenty of tasties that grow here naturally, but certainly not all the tasites that exist. How will I know where the food comes from if it's not marked? Also, there are the things that aren't necessarily marked for where they're from. Case in point, my cereal. I buy the bulk granola from Winco for my cereal, but it's impossible to tell where it's from: were the ingredients in the granola grown in America, or just combined in America (if any of it's from America at all)? Where does that info come from?
So wish me luck. Just thinking about the challenges has my stomach flipping, but I've created a blog so I'm committed now! Wish me luck, because I have a feeling I'm going to need it.
I've always been a little disappointed in Americans in that we're so willing to support another economy, and of late I've been even more disappointed because it's preventing us from supporting our own economy - and I don't think anyone would disagree with me that it could use the help. I thought how great it would be to buy only American...and then I thought how hard it would probably be. I mean really, is there anything that's made in America anymore? When I look at packaging, I actually find it surprising when I find something made in America, which is just sad. When our unemployment is through the roof, wouldn't it make more sense for us to be creating jobs in our economy instead of someone else's?
So I decided to try a little experiment: buying only American for a year. It's sort of along the lines of Living Plastic Free and I think a good idea, if probably a hard one to achieve.
I'm already beginning to wonder what I'm going to do about certain things. For example, food. I know that it's reasonably easy to get produce in the spring, summer, and fall from American sources, especially if you're buying locally. But what about the winter? And what about food that's not local? Living in Oregon there are plenty of tasties that grow here naturally, but certainly not all the tasites that exist. How will I know where the food comes from if it's not marked? Also, there are the things that aren't necessarily marked for where they're from. Case in point, my cereal. I buy the bulk granola from Winco for my cereal, but it's impossible to tell where it's from: were the ingredients in the granola grown in America, or just combined in America (if any of it's from America at all)? Where does that info come from?
So wish me luck. Just thinking about the challenges has my stomach flipping, but I've created a blog so I'm committed now! Wish me luck, because I have a feeling I'm going to need it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
