Facebook friends had been talking about the movie Food, Inc. recently. We'd seen previews on other movies we've rented and thought it was worth watching. Our local video store didn't have the movie so we sent out an on-line plea via facebook and one of our friends brought the movie down to us.
The friends were coming down anyway, they are a couple hoping to move to Costa Rica later in the year. Like many, they need to wait until their house in the states sells. If you're looking for a house in Utah, let me know & I'll put you in touch with them. Thanks for bringing the movies N & M!
Anyway....back to Food Inc. We all watched the movie together the night we got it. WOW, eye opening. Not really if you think about where your food comes from in the states. I mean a lot of people just go to the store and buy what they want without a thought to where it comes from. I like to believe that is changing but I don't live there so I don't know.
I do know where my food comes from. The majority of it anyway. Our fruits and veggies are locally grown. We can get imported items if we want them. At times we do. For example Bill will splurge on plums from time to time and we buy Chilean grapes pretty regularly. We know when we're buying local or buying imports. It's not something we're preoccupied about but we know.
Fruits and veggies are cheaper here than in the states. We're outta touch with prices in the states having lived here 4 years now. I understand bananas are much more expensive there. I bought two racks of bananas the other day. That's the entire rack that the hands of banana's you buy are cut from. My racks had combined probably a little over 100 bananas. I paid 3000 colones or about $5.50 U.S. dollars. These were locally grown not imports. I quick check on-line tells me bananas are selling at one grocer in Arizona for $0.40 a pound. My racks would've cost me about $40. There's no way Bill would let me get away with buy banana racks for the birds in the states. Holy cow! I had no idea. No wonder people from the states look at me funny when they hear how many bananas I go thru in a week just for the birds.
I ran into a local fruit market the other day and picked up a pineapple, two mango's, two cantaloupes, two boxes of strawberries and a head of lettuce and paid 3,630 colones about $6.67 U.S. dollars. All locally grown and not imported. I did a comparison shop on-line for the same items. The store I used didn't have pineapple. The cost for the items minus the pineapple, $14.15 before tax. OUCH!
As for our meats, they do not come from one or two packing companies. I see my little piggy, the whole piggy at my local butcher shop. Yep, even the head sometimes. My meat is cut right in front of my eyes, usually. Sometimes we buy what was cut earlier in the day and is in the case. There are plenty of times we can't get what we want because they are out. We try to go first thing in the morning if there is a specific cut we really want. Or we can order something and our butcher will have it packaged and ready, waiting for us.
Ah, the beef. We realize now that we have been programmed to believe the flavor of beef in the states is "the best'. Now we know different. Most of the cattle here ARE grass fed. This produces a beef with a very different taste. Before seeing the movie we preferred corn fed beef and made trips into the city specifically for buying U.S. tasting beef. I think we've changed our minds now.
This post started out about the movie Food, Inc. but it's taken me in a whole new direction. I am glad I'm not living and eating in the states. Thrilled. I'm happy to know where my food comes from and know that I have the ability to take even more control of what we eat than I would if I lived in the states.
Other than the quality of the food we eat I'm now interested in the cost comparison. I've heard for years expatriates whining about the rise in food costs here. I'd blindly accepted that they were right. Now I'm curious what my grocery bill here would be compared to the states. Check back for a post on that!
