We live in a world where geographic boundaries cease to exist when it comes to goods, services, and even food. We think nothing of having freshly squeezed orange juice or kiwis for breakfast, even if we live in New York City with 10-inches of snow on the ground in the middle of January. We live in an age where everything and anything is available for consumption year-round at your local grocery store. Convenience comes with potentially major ecological and economic impacts that are both positive and negative. For example, the coffee you drink may come from beans imported from Columbia, the sugar you use may come from India, or the steaks you sear on the grill may have come from Argentina. How much fuel was spent transporting these products across the ocean? Were any pesticides used? If so, was it done in a sustainable fashion? Were forests cleared to make room for grazing herds or larger agricultural fields? These are just a few of the many questions we should be asking ourselves when we make our selections at the grocery store.
Explore the following resources in the Kaplan Library, along with the link from the United States Department of Agriculture, to learn more about the foods we rely on and the variety of ways in which we can acquire them.