Dang. Dole Pineapple is from Thailand and Indonesia [Archive]

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CathyA

11-21-13, 6:15pm

Miss Cellane

11-21-13, 6:33pm

I have been buying certain canned good brands for a long time. I guess its my bad that I didn't check Dole pineapple more recently. I did today, and one can is from Thailand, and another from Indonesia. When did it stop coming from Hawaii?
This is really getting crazy.

Here's a link with an explanation. http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2013/03/its-pineapple-season-but-does-your-fruit-come-from-hawaii/

But basically, Hawaii only grows about .13 per cent of the world's pineapple crop. So if you want Hawaiian pineapple, you'll have a limited supply and it will be more expensive. If you want only US grown pineapple sold in the US, then there will be a shortage and the price will go up even more.

It's a decision everyone has to make. Buy local and only have certain foods when they are in season, or buy global and have most fresh foods all year around.

If you like bananas, they aren't grown in the US at all. If you want fresh fruit during the winter, you aren't going to get much that's grown in the US.

CathyA

11-21-13, 6:52pm

Thanks Miss Cellane. Yes, I was thinking about all the people in the world (like me) who want lots of the same thing.
What concerns me is if the quality control/safety is the same when it comes from other countries......and what chemicals they are allowed to use, etc.
I guess it boils down to me wanting to eat things that can't be grown locally/in season here. My DD really tries to eat locally and in season. For me, that would be black walnuts from our property and not a whole lot more (at least in winter).
Lots to think about..........lots to give up..........

catherine

11-21-13, 7:00pm

Geez, Cathy, you've been scrutinizing food labels lately! :)

Actually, I was JUST at the supermarket buying garlic, and I picked up a box of two bulbs, and thought of your post and looked--sure enough it was from China! So I picked a box that was from Florida.

CathyA

11-21-13, 8:04pm

LOL! Yes I have! Between looking for where things come from, and the ingredients and the cost/oz and comparing brands......it takes me forever to get through the store! I usually have to take a lunch with me. :laff:

iris lilies

11-21-13, 11:07pm

ok, now, what's wrong with Thailand?

I just can't keep up.

pinkytoe

11-22-13, 9:53am

catherine

11-22-13, 10:33am

ok, now, what's wrong with Thailand?

I just can't keep up.

IL, from my POV, I don't think there's anything wrong with the produce from Asia necessarily, but I'm thinking of transportation costs to get food here that is already readily available. If I'm making a choice between two boxes of garlic, and Florida is my "local" choice--even though it's 1500 miles away--there's something wrong with that picture.

ApatheticNoMore

11-22-13, 11:00am

ok, now, what's wrong with Thailand?

I don't know that there's anything wrong with Thailand (I fully expect coconuts to be from there), but it's more the regulations on what pesticides can be used on food often aren't as strong as in the U.S.. Produce can be imported into the U.S. with pesticides that are actually banned from use in the U.S.. And short of knowing every other countries laws, it's a short cut. Also people might want to buy local and while Hawaii is not local it's closer than Thailand. Tropical fruit isn't generally going to be local (although I have seen and do buy when I see it California mangoes). Mushrooms OTOH could be grown locally.

CathyA

11-22-13, 12:49pm

I don't know that there's anything wrong with Thailand (I fully expect coconuts to be from there), but it's more the regulations on what pesticides can be used on food often aren't as strong as in the U.S.. Produce can be imported into the U.S. with pesticides that are actually banned from use in the U.S.. And short of knowing every other countries laws, it's a short cut. Also people might want to buy local and while Hawaii is not local it's closer than Thailand. Tropical fruit isn't generally going to be local (although I have seen and do buy when I see it California mangoes). Mushrooms OTOH could be grown locally.

Thanks for saying things I couldn't seem to get out. For me, its also what catherine said..........all the transportation costs too.
The link that Ms Cellane posted was interesting.......as to what happened to the pineapple industry in Hawaii.

I needed to go shopping again today, and tried to find a non-made-in-China garlic powder. One brand was made in the U.S., but was outrageously expensive.
I ended up buying a bunch of whole garlic (supposedly grown in the U.S.), and I'll dry it and grind it.
But geez........something like garlic should be easy to grow in large quantities locally. I meant to plant my own this year, but time got away from me.
It would be great if every county had several big cooperative greenhouses. Wouldn't that be cool?

SteveinMN

11-22-13, 1:10pm

I needed to go shopping again today, and tried to find a non-made-in-China garlic powder. One brand was made in the U.S., but was outrageously expensive.
I certainly have no idea how much garlic powder you use. But at a teaspoon (or fraction) at a time, does it really amount to that much more to "buy American"?

Blackdog Lin

11-22-13, 8:51pm

Re: garlic powder: garlic is grown heavily in California. Last I ordered mine, Penzey's sells California garlic powder.

SteveinMN

11-23-13, 12:00am

Seen in tonight's "newspaper":

Meat labels get specific despite industry resistance (http://www.startribune.com/business/233104301.html)

Our company supports the views held by industry organizations ... that the implementation of a mandatory country-of-origin labeling rule would confuse consumers, raise food prices, be costly to implement and serves no public health or food safety benefit,” said Hormel spokeswoman Becci Smith.

Would consumers be confused because geography is no longer taught in school? Because meat terms like "New York Strip" and "Boston Butt Roast" would make people think the animal had visited the northeastern U.S.? o_O And do I think for one second that Hormel would fail to pass along to the consumer any costs incurred by this regulation? >8)

This reminds me very much of the whole GMO-labeling discussion. If printing the country of origin or GMO status is going to "confuse consumers" and cause them to rethink where their food comes from, companies like Hormel and Cargill and Tyson and Monsanto (and...) have at least a PR problem which they should be able to address. Or maybe, to take the advice of another scion of industry, the CEO of Google, they should not be doing anything they don't want publicized.

I wonder if these companies also fought putting the wording "Serving suggestion" on the container...?

CathyA

11-23-13, 8:43am

Good post Steve!

MaryHu

11-23-13, 12:08pm

I'm pretty sure costco garlic powder is US grown. All the fresh garlic we eat is grown right here in my raised beds. About 5 years ago I bought a head of garlic at the farmer's market and ever since I've been growing my own from that head's descendants. Garlic is easy to grow even in my cold northern climate (North Idaho). I just plant it in mid October and cover with a light layer of straw. In spring it gets right to work and by August is ready to harvest. I replant only the largest cloves for the next year and I have some of the biggest regular (not elephant) garlic I've ever seen. I've planted store bought garlic in the past but it only produced puny heads.

puglogic

11-23-13, 12:25pm

MaryHu, I do the same in Colorado. This year I planted 72 heads (on Columbus Day...) and it still won't be enough for a whole year, but it will hold us for most of it.

I wouldn't be as skeptical of imported garlic as I would of other foodstuffs. Garlic is tough stuff - antibiotic, antibacterial, antifungal -- and the pesticide load is likely to be much less than other crops anyway. But I still grow my own because it's the easiest thing in the world to grow. Plant it, mulch it, water it from time to time, shot of liquid kelp in the spring, that's it.

Pineapple....well....can't help there. I buy it fresh to have the good bromelain intact, so I only buy maybe 5 a year.

Greg44

11-23-13, 10:57pm

I see that Nally's (I think a Northwest Co.) sells pickles from India - I N D I A?! You mean it is cheaper to
buy them and ship them 1/2 way around the world to the USA than pickle them right here? Just don't understand it.

And I stopped buying them.

SteveinMN

11-23-13, 11:19pm

I see that Nally's (I think a Northwest Co.) sells pickles from India - I N D I A?!
Apparently, that's been going on for a while (http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080403/NEWS03/906948780)...

Tiam

11-24-13, 12:41am

In Texas, we have lots of citrus in the fall/winter so we always look forward to pigging out on tangerines, oranges and grapefruit. I find that a lot of canned tomato products are from China so I do peruse those cans before buying. I guess if we are truly concerned about such things, we should be canning away while in season. Not to mention all the news about canned food liners containing BPA.

I had no idea tomato products are being produced in China. Hmmmm, how do I avoid that? From what I understand a lot of producer producer a product locally but the tomato base was made in China.