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*
April 12, 2010
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.
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