| A Borderless Society| Impacts of a borderless society| | Courtney BrownSC300 – Big Ideas inScience: From Methods to MutationKaplan University| 3/12/2013| | When it comes to time of the day to sit down and eat a meal, there a couple of different things that I think of when I try to decide what to eat. The first thing is how hungry am I? The second thing is what kind offooddo I want; chicken, steak, a sandwich? The last thing I think of is how long it will take me for me to cook the meal. However, the thing I never think of is where does the food I’m eating come from?
I’m going to analyze one meal that I have eaten today, a cheeseburger and potato salad. When myfamilymakes potato salad, it normally consists of potatoes, onions, and bacon. Potatoes are the leading vegetable crop in the United States, contributing about 15% of farm sales (Jerardo, 2012). Over 50% of potato sales fare to processor for French fries, chips and other potato products (Jerardo, 2012). Western states such as Idaho, Washington, and Colorado produce two-thirds of fall potatoes with Idaho and Washington accounting for over half of the United States total (Jerardo, 2012).
Potatoes are usually grouped within two categories, fresh and processing. Processing potatoes then get broken down into, frozen (French fries), chips, dehydrated or canned (Jerardo, 2012). We always use the fresh potatoes when making the salad. United States farmers plant approximately 125, 000 acres of onions each year and produce about 6. 2 billion pounds a year (National Onion Association, 2011). The top 3 producing states of onions are Washington (22, 828 acres), Idaho-Eastern Oregon (21, 000 acres) and California (17, 850 acres) (National Onion Association, 2011).
Approximately 170 countries grow onions for their own domestic use, however many are involved in international trade (National Onion Association, 2011). The top leading countries for onion production are China, India, United States, Turkey and Pakistan; they count for 8% of global onion production (National Onion Association, 2011). After researching, I believethat the only way to get onions is having them fresh in the produce section of your grocery store. Bacon is most likely my most beloved part of the potato salad. Who doesn’t love bacon, right?
The two main methods of curing bacon are pumping and dry curing. Pumped bacon has curing ingredients that are injected directly into the meat to speed up the curing process and add bulk (US Department of Agriculture, 2011). Dry cured bacon has a premeasured amount of cure mixture applied or rubbed on the bacon surface. This curing phase takes up to 2 weeks to complete (US Department of Agriculture, 2011). They also produce organic and natural bacon (US Department of Agriculture, 2011). Iowa, carrying 29% of the United States market share (Perman, 2012).
The burger can be made so many different ways from the toppings that go on it to what it is made out of. The meat of the burger can be made out of ground beef, chuck, and sirloin and so on. We purchase our beef from Wal-Mart stores but cannot find on where they retain their meat from. The biggest benefit of having this type of food market would have to be competition. In today’s world no matter what you do; you always seem to be in competition with somebody. If a person is in high school they are competing to get the best grades, if you are at your job you may be competing for a promotion.
In the food market today, everybody is always looking for the best price and with so many different sources to get your supplies; every company is going to be looking to get your business. In return if people use their product for a decant amount ofmoneyand they are satisfied, they are going to tell someone about it then they will possibly gain another customer. One of this disadvantages of having a market like this is that because there are so many different sources for people to use, companies can forget the consumer.
Some companies maybe think that because they are selling their products for less money, that they can cut corners and not use the best supplies to make their products. This might tempt the consumer to go to another company and pay a little more but they will have a better product coming out of it. We are getting into a time where people are starting to pay attention more to how much they are spending, what they are getting out of spending that money and if it’s even worth paying for it.
People everywhere are starting to either grow their own food or are starting to look for locally grown food so they know nothing is going to harm them; which the phrase “ Think Globally, Act Locally” comes into play. This phrase is basically trying to convey that we need to start thinking about what we put into this world and how we take care of it. Although trading and selling goods with other countries is a good thing, staying local will cut down onpollutionin the air. These days it is getting tough with the prices of everything rising so staying locally will also benefit the farmers in the area.
Before this assignment I never really thought of the impact that my choices of where I bought my food can make. Even if just one more a person a day chose to buy something locally, I believe that they can make a huge difference globally. I live in a small town that doesn’t have many grocery stores that sell locally grown food. We do however have a farmer’s market that comes to town for about two months between September and November; so when that time comes everyone takes advantage.
Unfortunately any other time of the year, we have to resort to going to Wal-Mart or target. I do believe that locally grown food is the way to go; there are so many benefits of it like being healthier for you and healthier for theenvironmentand you know that the local farmers did not use any chemicals. I think that if one person everyday decided to buy locally than we can make the earth healthier. References Jerardo, A. (2012). Vegetables & pulses: Potatoes. Retrieved from http://www. ers. usda. ov/topics/crops/vegetables-pulses/potatoes. aspx National Onion Association. (2011). All about onions. Retrieved from http://www. onions usa. org/all-about-onions/where-how-onions-are-grown US Department of Agriculture. (2011). Bacon and food safety. Retrieved from http://www. fsis. usda. gov/factsheets/Bacon_and_Food_Safety/index. asp Perman, C. (2012). Bacon tourism: From the Davos of bacon to bacon mecca. Retrieved from http://www. cnbc. com/id/47537540/Bacon_Tourism_From_the_Davos_of_Bacon_to_Bacon_Mecca
