How Far Does My Food Travel

Breakfast
Folgers Coffee – Distributed by Procter and Gamble
Cherry Lane eggs – National food corp. Spokane, WA

Lunch
Land O Frost Turkey meat – land O’ Frost Inc. Lansing, IL
OROWEAT 12-grain bread – Bimbo Bakeries. Fort worth, TX

Dinner
Hormel canned Breast O Chicken – Hormel Foods Austin, MN


While stationed At Eielson AFB from 1993 – 1997, I had little experience with shopping for food because I lived in the dorms. Once I departed Eielson and arrived at my next duty station things changed. Allowed to reside off base, started my obsession with fresh fruit. Warner Robins, Georgia, the home of the peach is the place where I first tasted fresh fruit. Fresh, meaning plucked right off the tree, sun ripened warm peaches. So rip that the juice squirts from both sides of your mouth when you bite down on it. At that time, the only fresh fruit that I experienced was from the store. Store bought fruit is not that bad, if you can get past the process before it hits the shelves. Plucked, processed, shipped, and stocked; freshness is not guaranteed. The cost of the fruit was another aspect that at the time did not affect me because it did not cost me anything, just the time to pick the fruit. A coworker and my aunt both had peach trees in their yards so access to the peaches was easy. I left Georgia with a basket of just picked peaches heading for Fort Walton Beach, Florida, state of the orange. I missed peaches for a while, that is until I eat a fresh orange. The brightness of the orange color made the orange seem wet. The juice, once I bit into the orange was the sweetest I had ever tasted. Only fresh fruit entered my mouth from that point on. The two southern states that I resided in spoiled me with fresh produce.
Now I am back in Fairbanks, AK, state of long summer and cold winters and no fresh produce. Not only does Alaska not have fresh produce, items that are here are so over priced that I have to think twice before I buy them. Fruits and vegetable are picked before reaching maturity to allow for travel time to Alaska. I love fresh produce; I will have to deal with over priced not so fresh produce. There is a bright side to all of this; it is only for 3 years.