Right, so. I’m behind on posting, on writing, on interacting with all my lovely blog-friends. My brain just hasn’t wanted to share. It’s been months actually since I’ve made an effort. So, I have very little today.
I have a lot of followers from the USA, and I wanted to talk about the differences between the meat I buy in Ireland, and what you all get in the US.
First of all, we have a national quality standard.
Secondly – dude! I can go to this farm and meet your man, if I want to. His name, his address, is right there on the package of steaks.
The provenance is always listed on non-processed food – not only meat, but fruits and vegetables. It makes me wonder why the US can’t, or won’t, do the same for their food. Wouldn’t you like to know that you are buying potatoes from Israel when you live in Idaho?
heretherebespiders 
Okay, being stateside I can tell you, most of the produce here is actually labeled so we know where that comes from. And actually, quite alot of our stores do “advertise” local produce up in front of the produce section. This is also the case for milk/cheese products. As for meat, there are not many times we are told where that comes from, aside from the rarity….buffalo meat, etc. (am so glad I’m vegetarian!) But yes, I think it’s an easy enough thing to tell us where things are coming from and why don’t they do more of that!
Where are you located? General idea is fine 🙂 I lived in Florida for many years, where of course they said fish/shrimp were local. But no one ever talked about the veggies!
We are in northwestern PA (Erie area). But it was the same in Pittsburgh area when we lived there! Interesting, huh?
I lived quite close to you before I moved here! Was in Ohio, Cleveland area. Did some whitewater rafting in PA, too 🙂 Maybe being the Midwest, where most of the food is grown or raised, makes a difference?
Oh, most interesting that you were so close! Cleveland is about 90 minutes from here. Though…..we’re still considered eastern seaboard here….not Midwest. We also did the whitewater rafting down in Ohiopyle, have you ventured there?
I have! My mom was born in Charleroi, too.
I’m around DC, and I regularly see labels on produce telling me where it comes from in a general almanac sense, but nothing as detailed as the actual name of the producer or the location of the farm. Meat, I don’t eat, so I can’t tell you but it seems unlikely.
I know you don’t, but it actually means a lot to me that I can go and see the farm the cows or chickens are raised on. Or even choose to buy Mayo food over other counties, or countries!
Where I’m at you can see where most of the fruits come from easily because of the stickers, veggies it depends. When it’s actually warm enough here to grow locally we try to get our veggies from the farmer’s market every weekend. I also like getting local cheeses there. I’ve never actually looked at the meat, but I kind of doubt it. I do prefer to get meat from a specific grocery chain that sources most of their beef and pork from the surrounding area. It just tastes better.
That’s good! 10 years ago, nothing was mentioned unless it was local produce, which was very rare in the places I lived (Florida, Ohio). Yeah, I could get fresh fish or shrimp in FL, and lovely corn in OH – but where did my mushrooms and peppers and chicken come from?
Gawd bless stickers I guess. 😉
Didn’t realise food wasn’t labelled in the US. How on earth can you work out the food miles?
I don’t actuallyknow if food miles are an issue in the US. Ireland just got the nod to sell our beef there, and we are thrilled about it. Irish beef is SO good.
That’s awesome. There’s a great Portlandia sketch about learning the name of your chicken and visiting the farm before dinner. It was comedy to the extreme of course.
Years ago i was trying to explain to a Brazilian friend that, with our meat industry, you can’t always be sure what you’re getting. Like how, in the ’70s in Michigan, a company that made cattle feed and fire retardant stuff for pajamas mixed up the batches for a while and the cows ate the pajama chemicals.
And, once Husband sent a letter of complaint to Whole Foods because they claimed the miso on the shelves was ‘local’ when in fact it was grown locally, shipped to Japan for processing, then SHIPPED BACK.
I’m rambling. All this to say that I spend a lot of time thinking about food, and I’M SURE GLAD YOU’RE BACK!!!
I’m trying to be back! So hard to find anything interesting, which boggles me when I used to find EVERYTHING interesting! Oh well.
We started watching Portlandia, didn’t get very far. I think it’s more hubby’s sense of humour than mine (very Parks and Recreation). I wanted to see it as I have lots of family in the area, and some are quite hippie.
It boggles my mind that one company would make feed and asbestos-type stuff. Whyyyyy? Good on your hubby, that is stupidly wrong!
Errrrrr … I think ours is nearly all local here in the Dordogne. I should take more notice of labelling – and take my glasses with me!
It all ties to politics and corporate conglomerates. Fun stuff 😀
I use my politics when I look at the labels! Seriously, why are they importing Israeli potatoes to IRELAND?!? Might as well ship them to Idaho!
Really? In Canada, the country of origin is mandatory. You don’t always have an address (very rarely, in fact), but I know at least that the tomatoes at this time of the year are from California (and there are the expensive greenhouse grown ones from Québec just beside them). I can tell if the beef is from Canada (most is) or if it was imported. I only buy strawberries and blueberries when we have those grown locally during the summer, as those from California that we get during the winter are devoid of any flavor (they are likely very good there, but they must be put on trucks before they are mature). Ah I pay much more for locally grown strawberries, but at least they are tasteful.
I have the same problem…LOL
Not wanting to interact? Or?
Being Irish decent and having trouble writing lately…LOL
Oooh. That sucks, doesn’t it? My issue was too many unread blog emails, because I got into another depressive patch and just stopped caring. I’m all caught up now, and it helps a lot.