How disconnected from your food are you?

[Sir Og]

I was wondering how disconnected from food are people around the world. Especialy in the urbanised western societies.

So the question is have you seen the actual plants and anymals that your food comes from. Have you seen a tomato plant or patato plant, etc. Have you seen a real pig, chicken, cow? Have you killed your own food e.g to slaughter a pig.

My guess is that there are people who have only seen food in the supermarket but it is interesting to know how many are those.

It would be interesting to know your age and where you live.

It would be best to make it a poll but I am not sure how to do it and can't think of the options.

[Dinner]

Sure I've killed fish and animals before I ate them. Normally I just go to the store and buy them but I have done it before. Growing up we had a vegitible garden but my current house doesn'thave much of a backyard so I can't manage much more then a few herbs in a planter.

I do try to buy organic though simply because I like the idea of buying chemical free foods which normally are selected because they taste better and not because they're easier for big companies to ship. Take tomatos for example. Most big commercial packers use one type of tomato which is designed to be large, bright red in color, and have a very tough skin to reduce bruising. The fruit also is completely flavorless and tastes like water and the flesh is tough to chew. Organic producers use old fashioned tomato breeds which are softer & better tasting so they're a bit harder to ship but they actually taste much better then the mass market breeds.

[Japher]

I'm 30 and live in San Jose, CA

I went to college in Davis, CA and grew up in Fresno, CA

Until I moved to San Jose the towns I lived in were Ag towns. The fruit I ate was picked from the tree around the corner, the corn from the field down the street, and the meat I ate from the pasture behind my house. I still by my meat off the hoof at fairs, and grow as much as the herbs that I can. Fruit and Veggies I get at the store though, but I know, have seen, and have picked most of what I eat. My wife's father grows grapes for raisins.

[Kontiki]

I've seen more livestock and crops than I could possibly remember. Managed to stay away from the processing plants, although there's a pig slaughterhouse just down the street from where I live that kicks up quite the stench from time to time. Uplifiting stuff driving by the rows of trucks filled with live pigs, too.

[duke o' york]

My mate's dad is "known to the authorities" for growing the "special" ingredient in "special cookies". Does that count?

Or do all the speechmarks disqualify it?

[Atahualpa]

I thought food was only produced in factories!?!

[loinburger]

I went to a petting zoo once, where I saw some lamb chops before they became lamb chops.

[GePap]

I was born in a large city (over 500,000) and now live in a urban area of over 10 Million people.

That said, I have gone to farms and ranches and seen animals being processed, and the plants many fruits come from.

In Panama its easy to have a mango tree in the back yard and eat those fruits, as well as plum trees. I have helped harvest carrots and Yuca, seen potatoes and pineapples being harvested.

I have seen chickens and rabbits and sheep killed and then prepared to be eaten.

So, while there is plenty of alienation, I have no illusions about my meals.

[Flubber]

We grew potatos, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, onion, turnip etc etc etc..If it could grow in eastern canada, my dad probably grew it.


As for animals, I think I have seen a live version of every type of animal I have eaten but I have not been involved in the killing or processing myself

[Odin]

I grew up in a small farming community, and have some step-relatives who keep livestock. Over half my classmates lived on farms. It is at the intersection of the dairy, corn, and wheat belts, and so have a great variety of crops, including LOTS of sugarbeets (which is why CAFTA is not thought of too highly here to say the least). A few years back my class got a new student from the Twin Cities. we were flabbergasted when he thought chocolate milk come from brown cows.

[lord of the mark]

i love to visit farms, drive by fields etc. I like to visit wineries and get samples.

My own thumb isnt too green. managed to grow some lettuce, with POTMs help. This spring I planted carrots - but they didnt grow - too much shade, I think.


Ive never killed an animal for food - my late father-in-law slaughtered chickens though - he was a shochet, a kosher slaughterer, before moving on to bigger and better things.

Ive never been a successful fisherman, Im afraid, though ive tried.

[Q Classic]

Re: How disconnected from your food are you?

Originally posted by Sir Og
So the question is have you seen the actual plants and anymals that your food comes from. Have you seen a tomato plant or patato plant, etc. Have you seen a real pig, chicken, cow? Have you killed your own food e.g to slaughter a pig.

Yes, I've seen the actual plants and animals for a good portion of the food I've eaten, as in, I've seen live cows (didn't like 'em), live pigs (didn't like 'em), live chickens (didn't like 'em). I've also seen chickens and pigs butchered, but not in a slaughterhouse, but rather in a butchershop while I visited relatives in Korea. I've caught, gutted, and cooked fish (though I've only done it a few times, and the gutting part, not too well), but never killed anything bigger without a car (I did not eat the raccoon I once hit).

As far as plants... I've seen ricefields, corn fields, and mom grows the tomatoes and peppers she uses.

===

That said, I personally tend to buy food in the supermarket, simply because it's cleaner, neater, and more organized. I don't see a problem with paying someone to do all the hassle of bringing me milk in a carton, cuts of meat, and bushels of produce, so...

As far as purchasing organic/not... I think it's a load of crap, but I do ocassionaly do it when the price is right. For instance there's the Coop in Hyde Park, which sells organic produce for high prices. There's Village Foods, and there's Jewel/Osco which do not, but their produce is still tasty and cheap. Then there's Hyde Park Produce, which sells organic produce for very cheap. It's no surprise I end up getting virtually all produce from Jewel and HPP (sometimes HPP has even better deals than Jewel).

[Frankychan]

For me it's mostly been fish, octopus, squid, shellfish that I've handled. Catch the fish, go diving for octopus, and pick shellfish and the like from the shore.

Veggie-wise, it's a little harder. I've handled and seen the actual plants of some of the veggies I eat.

Fruitwise, it's a lot easier. In my neighborhood it seemed like every house had some kind of fruit tree. Lemon, Tangerine, Lychee. There are still area's where pineapple is grown. Fields of that stuff...but I never picked 'em.

Although I've never seen a slaughterhouse before...and never want to.

[Pekka]

have I seen plants, animals etc? Wtf.. what a weird question.

[BeBMan]

You can see lots of animals or fields with plants when leaving the city and drive across the countryside....

Also children generally are crazy about seeing animals, so its popular not only to go to a zoo with them, many parents also visit a farm somewhere and show the kids what's going on there. Then they can look at those animals, or feed some of the smaller, cuter examples. Of course I don't know if they associate them with food