Foreign Food rant

[David LaPell]

The wife, the boy and I went grocery shopping today and while we were looking at things I noticed the stock clerk in the veggie section with a box of broccoli that said Hong Kong on the side. When we got to the fish section I started looking around and I saw some fish from Taiwan, China, Russia, and a few other countries. I saw almost nothing that said USA on it. This was not a Wallyworld, this was a local grocery store that is pretty much exclusive to the northeast. Later we did go to Wallyworld and it was worse. The frozen food and meat section looked like I was shopping at the UN with all of the names of nations from where everything came from, except the U.S. Granted the beef and poultry were from this country, but it looks pale, brown, and skimpy. I have seen 90 pound does that produced better looking meat than what I saw being billed as top choice, and priced as such. I told the wife today no more. I intend to do more fishing this coming summer than I have in a long time with a goal to fill my freezer. A fishing license costs $19 here in NY, while a pound of trout costs $10. I also plan to start catching snapping turtles and frogs. I plan to fill my freezer and get my food bill down a long way. I'll be darned if I am going to pay good money for food coming in from who knows where and being pumped full of who knows what. If it wasn't for the wife's hankering for ground turkey the only meat that would be getting cooked would be all game meat.

 

[Kelly Green]

I understand what you're saying and can't say that I blame you. My wife and I are both avid hunters and we also do a lot of fishing. We have two large freezers and keep both well stocked. We also cure and smoke a lot of the game. I can't recall the last time we ate store bought meat and fish. There is no telling anymore where that stuff comes from or what's in it. If your wife likes ground turkey there's none better than wild. Get hold of a good meat grinder and you're good to go. A grinder is also essential for making sausage after you get that wild pig fed up on corn.

 

[DeathGrip]

I feel your pain. The licence is about the same but the boat? The last Snapper I ate cost me about 50$ a pound. The fun was priceless.
I won't eat our fresh water species. Sadly I can catch a bunch of fish in our local fresh water ways but they're polluted. I still have fun catching them though. My last catch was a Large Mouth Bass. 8Lbs. Right behind my shop. I always have a rod in my truck.

 

[vytoland]

the best items that are produced in the usa are smith & wesson firearms and walmart stores.

 

[Rule3]

It is reall sad that here in Florida most of the seafood is imported and farm raised. The stuff they pass off as shrimp is farm raised in Vietnam. There are no regulations on what antibiotics,preservatives, anti fungus grown chemicals are put in those shrimp. Florida Pink wild shrimp are almost $3 a lb more.

The big selling fish is Tilapia, which to me are disgusting if you see how they are farmed.

 

[Sebago Son]

Try raising chicken and rabbits. They are the best return on your investment in terms of time and money. Wild game rarely is.

 

[writerinmo]

We have "fishing ponds'' here in the St. Louis area that you can actually eat the fish you catch there.

 

[truckemup97]

Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Seriously, though, I'm with ya, David. I can't harvest most of it myself, but I'm really picky about what I feed my family. It costs a bit more to buy hormone/antibiotic free beef, pork and chicken, but it tastes better and is much better for you. And Drew may be on to something with the chicken/rabbit idea. One or two pigs (buy a shoat and raise it, don't breed them) don't take up much room and don't necessarily smell too bad, either.

Good on ya for paying attention to what's going on around you. Most folks just buy whatever's cheapest...

 

[Sebago Son]

Hunter vs. Gatherer....

.. And Drew may be on to something with the chicken/rabbit idea.

I've done it. It works. The amount of time and upfront investment is not huge and they will provide a continuous stream of protein.

I kept 5 good Layers and 1 Rooster and I was giving eggs away. When they were happy I got a dozen or more eggs a day. Twice a year I would brood another batch of chicks and six months later I had 15-20 nice, plump roasters in the freezer.

Rabbits are even easier, as they don't require incubation / brooding but you can't let them range like chickens. Every 8-10 weeks a good doe will produce 30 pounds of meat. You can do very well with three does and one buck.

In my experience, larger animals such as cattle & swine require too great a commitment in time, space and maintenance so I would from time-to-time buy and split a dressed "side" with another household.

Unless a fella were to take up a life of poaching, it would be very difficult, given the bag limits, to feed your family solely on wild game.

Drew

 

[Texas Star]

Some canned salmon, although with brands like Chicken of the Sea, use salmon canned in Thailand. Now, salmon do not live off of Thailand. How do they get them there, and how long are the fish frozen in some ship?

Tilipia also has more fat than steak, and fish farms in the Orient are probably disgusting.

The public seems to be letting this get right by them. Probably don't read labels. Too busy with football and reality TV.

 

[Sebago Son]

T-Star, you are so right. Tilapia are raised in ditches with all sorts of run-off also collecting there. Human sewage included. I wouldn't use them for bait. Foriegn farm raised shrimp are even worse.

The only farm raised fish I would eat is Canadian or Maine farmed Atlantic Salmon. And sometimes I wonder about that....

 

[Marshwheeling]

Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

I like the spirit of fostering self-reliance and self-sufficiency expressed here. So:

"Build a man a fire, and keep him warm for a day. Set a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life."

 

[bloo]

Most of the meat in our Walmarts are marked "a product of Mexico" We have a local family owned fish market that has more and more of their fish marked from Canada or farm raised. And we live right on lake Michigan. Plenty of perch out there but the perch at the fish store come from Canada!
When we were in Hawaii a few years back we were told all of the fresh pineapple comes from the Philippines. I get my meat form a local meat market. It is all locally raised.


Ted

 

[22dec]

A lot of the meat in our local supermarket is labeled "Product of US, Mexico, or Brazil. All our meat comes from a butcher shop and comes from local farms. I did find some frozen Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon that is good.

Don

 

[Sebago Son]

I've seen what goes on in and into Mexican lakes. I wouldn't eat anything that came out of them on a bet.

 

[DeathGrip]

Tilapia is farmed all over in warmer climates. The Seminoles Tribe of Fla. has farms out in the everglades. As usual they have gotten loose and sometimes I'll happen on one while canal fishing. I see fish sometimes that I have no clue what they are and can't find them on the invasive species list. Tilapia are on the list.

 

[quneur]

They're in canals all over Oahu. I used to catch them in Kapalama canal as a child on bamboo poles ($.05-$.10) using bread as bait. They'll eat almost anything. But everyone said they were poisonous so we always threw them back.

 

[jeepjeepwhat]

Every season i refill my freezer with 2-3 deer. That gives me enough meat so I don't have to buy red meat at the market. Sure I'll buy the occasional delmonico from the local butcher but all my roasts, ground meat, sausage, bologna are all venison. I also smoke a great deal of trout I catch in the spring time and it stores very well. I have always been a slave to the grocery/butcher for my pork, however this year I am raising a pig on a friends farm and will slaughter it come fall to rectify that situation. Oh and I get my eggs from my brother that has a couple of chickens pecking around his yard. I also have a garden every summer that I get vegetables from and I can/pickle my beans, cucumbers, and peppers. I also have an old family recipe for the best ketchup you've ever had from my mater plants.

I can afford to buy all my groceries from the market and I dont' think that the "foreign" foods are any worse than the mass produced food from this country. I mainly do all of that for hobbies and to stay busy. It also gives me a great deal of satisfaction from supplying my own food.