Introduction Introduction Do you ever wonder what your groceries would tell you if they could talk When I realized that the bananas avocados and mandarin oranges I loved had traveled across more countries than I ever had I decided to pay closer attention to where my food came from I discovered that every thing you buy whether it’s an apple or a pair of shoes has a story I found out my salmon fillet came from a fish that had never swum in the ocean my orange juice was previously brown and some ingredients in my favorite packaged foods had originated from plants conceived under a microscope This book unlocks the mysterious secret lives of our groceries explores alternative and sometimes bizarre farm technology and tours gardens up high on corporate rooftops to down low in military-style bunkers beneath city streets My son Landon and I picking apples at an orchard in Kelowna British Columbia One of his first foods was applesauce I made with apples from this orchard Now he will happily devour a whole apple in one sitting core and all L AUR A C ARBONNE AU 6
Few children in North America are growing up to become farmers like their parents and grandparents before them SUSAN H SMITH ISTOCK COM From Farm to Table When I was a child my family lived on a farm in Saskatchewan I loved planting watering and harvesting veggies helping my mom make jams and pies from Saskatoon berries collecting chicken eggs and drinking milk fresh from our cow Daisy and goat Pixie Now that I’m a mom I try to find the healthiest foods for my family and make as much as I can from scratch with whatever’s in the fridge or pantry This is me herding our three goats and cow led by the rope up to the barn KIMBERLE Y VENE SS 77
chapter one Let's Eat Let's Eat Let's Eat Let's Eat Let's Eat When you push the cart around the grocery store with W hen you push the cart around the grocery store with your mom or dad do you ever stop and think about where all the food comes from The answer may surprise you A Veggie Marathon If you’re shopping in North America your groceries may travel between 2,400 and 4,000 kilometers 1,500 and 2,500 miles before you actually eat them Getting food from another country seems like an outlandish idea when you could find fresh options closer to home but products grown in other countries are often cheaper because of lower labor costs and fewer environmental regulations Farm workers are often under paid and forced to live and work in poor conditions Buying paid and forced to live and work in poor conditions Buying local reduces transport time and supports the local economy local reduces transport time and supports the local economy but farmers in cooler climates can’t grow heat-loving crops like but farmers in cooler climates can’t grow heat-loving crops like strawberries year-round So what do you do Do you add a box strawberries year-round So what do you do Do you add a box of imported strawberries to your cart or wait for local straw of imported strawberries to your cart or wait for local straw berries to come back in season berries to come back in season Seasonal produce is available year-round at most grocery stores TOLGAILDUN DREAMSTIME COM 8
Locals peruse the produce at this market in Ahmedabad India M ANANSHAH1008 WIKIPEDIA ORG In Excess We Trust Imagine you’re walking down a gravel road in the Canadian prai ries Canola a crop that is processed into canola oil and used worldwide in cooking grows on both sides of the road covering the land in a bright yellow blanket as far as the eye can see It’s beautiful but it comes at a price Agriculture has come a long way from the postcard picture of a cozy farmhouse a red barn and fields planted with a variety of crops Few of our foods origi nate from farms like these Most of the berries fruit veggies and grains we eat come from monocultures single crops grown on large areas of land Growing just one crop makes harvest and pest management much easier for farmers who grow on a large scale Before the Industrial Revolution when machines started to replace human labor farmers relied on planting and harvesting with the aid of horses or oxen and sometimes help from family members and neighbors School even let out earlier in the after noon around harvest time so children could lend a hand Prior to 1834 when the first reaper a machine for cutting down grain hit the market grain crops were harvested by hand with a sickle a handheld tool with a curved blade and it could take weeks for one farmer to harvest his field of grain even with extra help Workers picked these beans in the morning and customers will pick them up in the afternoon SOL K AUFFM AN FARMING FACT Did you know that digging your hands into a garden bed has been scientifical ly proven to increase happiness Gardeners touch and breathe in a soil bacterium called Mycobacterium vaccae which stimulates the feel good sensors in the brain 9
