Where's your next meal coming from?

[trof]

Whether or not you believe in Global Warming or Peak Oil, you probably believe that you did actually pay $3.39 per gallon (or more) the last time you sweated through a tank fill up. My friend Carl can't even get a fill up for his Chevy Tahoe around Montgomery, AL. He says the pumps shut off at $75. He has to go in the store, pay the $75, and get them to reset the pump.
Oh boy.

I read recently that the 'average' distance the food in the 'average' American meal traveled is 1500 miles from production site, to processing site, to regional distribution warehouse, to your grocery store, to your home, in the pantry or freezer. I don't know if I 'believe' that, and I haven't researched it. But I guess I wouldn't be surprised.
Take a look on the label at where some of your canned and frozen food came from.

You may have noticed that your grocery bills are a teeny bit higher than say...this time last year.
(Gross understatement)
Two reasons: 1. Cost of gasoline. 2. Ethanol.
I won't get into the whole swapping growing food for growing fuel thing here.
Maybe another time.

Point is that gas ain't EVER going back to $1.75 gallon again.
EVER.
I'll go out on a limb here and predict that the price will continue to go higher and higher.
So it will cost more and more to get those groceries from where they was borned to where you can buy them.

Next point: Get used to living/eating 'local'.
(Google the 100 mile 'diet'.)
Get used to eating foods that are IN SEASON, and grown near where you live.
And right here I have to give a hats off to Lucy Buffett.
She's the very interesting lady who runs Lulu's at Homeport Marina.
http://www.lulusathomeport.com/main/index.php
I had the good fortune to meet and talk with her at a fundraiser for the Foley (AL) library a few weeks ago. She is working to encourage local growers to devote more acreage to table produce, as opposed to cash crops like soybeans, peanuts, cotton, etc.
It's not entirely altruistic on her part. She wants the freshest produce available for her restaurant, and I don't blame her. Fresh is better, makes better tasting dishes, and customers come back.

But her efforts will benefit all of us living in the area (I hope).
The more local food that we can buy, the lower the transportation costs, and the more it's a win-win for producer and consumer.
To see what local food is now available near you, go to the Local harvest website.
http://www.localharvest.org/
Plug in your zip code and see.

Bon apetit

[NMDemDist2]

1. I love that you keep singing this song trof

It's at the top of my Hit Parade

:applause:

:patriot:

That why I have to steer clear of the 'vegetarian' threads, here in my high plains desert home, in the bad lands of New Mexico, beef is what's for dinner. Those tough old cows make excellent protein out of tumbleweeds and buffalo grass. And they range all around me, no feed lots, no 'corn finishing' just beef on the hoof to the slaughter house then 30 miles to my local butcher shop.

and my garden is growing well and gonna get bigger next year.

Chickens are next.......

[TheCentepedeShoes]

2. Have some knowledge of your area

My parental units met up in Jal.

[trof]

4. Jal?

No comprendre?

[TheCentepedeShoes]

16. Little town

in the very SE corner of New Mexico.

[NMDemDist2]

9. yup, that's the area

they don't call in the 'bad lands of New Mexico' for nothing

:rofl:

[trof]

3. My new best friend Lucy just contracted with an organic farmer.

OK, they're about 120 miles away.
But they will supply her with ALL the beef she uses in her restaurant.
Organic. Grass fed.
http://www.boutwellfarms.com/

They're devoting 3 herds to her restaurant.
She served almost 200,000 cheeseburgers last year. I have no idea what that translates in to pounds of ground beef. And a lot of those sales probably have something to do with brother's 'Cheeseburger in Paradise' album.
Yeah, she's Jimmy's sister.
And this is primarily a LOCALLY CAUGHT seafood restaurant.
GO LULU!

[AlCzervik]

5. a frozen veggie meal from Amy's in Petaluma Ca which is pretty local for me.

[NightWatcher]

6. everything is costing more than we can afford

I am having to eat the costs because my clients dont want to pay the difference. Hotels- Up, Gas- up, Food- up. Profits-down

I dont know how much longer I can foot the bill. I am in the middle of a week long business trip and this is hitting home real bad this week.


My next meal... will probably be coming from McD's or the gas station.

[Mind_your_head]

7. blech.....

don't eat any of that stuff...it's NASTY

"My next meal... will probably be coming from McD's or the gas station."

[NightWatcher]

8. options are limited on the road

when I get back home, I will get my shit together (after I get paid)

[Mind_your_head]

10. Yeah, I realize that (have 'been there' myself)

STILL, you can always work out something better for yourself if you're the least little bit creative and don't want to eat that nasty excuse for 'food' that you find on the road. So much of what we amurikans call 'food' is not food at all! It's not nutritious or healthy for the body, it's only "filler"....it fills up your belly. And if that's all you're looking for, that's all that you shall get.

[NightWatcher]

11. I'm almost reduced to "camping food"

hell, with the cost of hotels, I almost considered camping this week to save a few hundred bucks

[Mind_your_head]

12. There's nothing wrong with 'camping" or camping to save money

but what's "camping food"?

How can we DU'ers help?

[Mind_your_head]

13. hmmmm.....no answer

Not surprising.

[SpiralHawk]

14. Fast food mutant crapola causes freeperish mutations in otherwise healthy citizens.

"You are what you eat." - Tiny Tim

[Mind_your_head]

15. EEEEEEEEEEeeekkkkk!!!!

We loved tiny tim too.....back in the day......

No One was excluded, except those that didn't want to accept something beyond what they could uunderstand at that time. :crazy:

We're all screwed.....well, maybe not....but we have to understand what the h*ll just happened here.

Peace,
M_Y_H