A woman and a girl stand near a grocery cart in a store. The woman selects a box from the shelf, examining it. Transitioning to a mother and son strolling through the store's aisle, the son picks an orange and shows it to his mother.
When we go into a grocery store, we usually shop for food that tastes good or costs less than other foods. We do not usually ask where the food that we buy comes from. We do not ask how it was grown, produced, and processed. So, where does your food come from? How does it get to the grocery store? How is it processed?
Images of plant-based foods and animals appear, transitioning to a display of various foods like berries, nuts, lentils, cucumbers, and carrots.
To begin with, all food comes from plants or animals. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and berries come from plants. Did you know that the average American eats almost 8 pounds of carrots annually?
Milk, eggs, fish, and meats are displayed on a table, transitioning to an image of roasted chicken.
Milk, eggs, meats, and cheeses all come from animals. Americans consume more than 65 pounds of chicken each year…that’s more than one pound per person each week!
The slide titled “Plant-Based Foods” features images of Avocado, Apples, Oranges, and nuts under the subheading “Fruit of a Tree”. Lettuce and Kale appear under “Leaves of a plant”, while Celery and Asparagus are under “Stem of a Plant”. Beetroot and carrot images appear under “Root of a Plant”.
Some plant-based foods are the fruit of a tree, such as avocados, apples, oranges, and even nuts. Others, such as lettuce and kale, are the leaves of a plant, and some foods, like celery and asparagus, are a plant’s stems. Wait, do we also eat roots? Yes, edible roots include beets and carrots. If you thought about it, you could probably match the vegetables you eat with their plant parts.
A girl selects potatoes from a grocery store and puts them in her bag.
Many people think that potatoes are the root of a plant because they grow underground. However, they are actually tubers, which are special stems that shoot off from a root.
Animal-based foods are displayed in a store, transitioning to an image of a boy eating chicken.
Animal-based foods come from animals. Much of the animal-based foods we eat come from beef cattle, swine, chickens, and dairy cows.
Milk bottles are visible in a processing facility, transitioning to milk-based products like cheese and yogurt stacked in a store.
Workers collect milk and flour in a processing facility, transitioning to an image of yogurt with a spoon.
Some animal-based foods are processed to become something else before we eat them. For example, milk is processed to become many of the products you find in your grocery store, including cheese, yogurt, butter, and ice cream. While this covers simple foods, much of the food we eat in America is a combination of simple foods. This includes your favorite yogurt with blueberry fruit at the bottom of the container.
A young girl drinks milk from a cup, transitioning to a young boy eating meat with a fork.
Now that we know food comes from plants and animals, we can ask, where are the plants and animals grown that create my food?
A man and a woman hold a vegetable basket, transitioning to maps displaying food sources across the United States and globally.
Are they produced from a local farmer? Someplace else in the United States? Or do they come from somewhere else in the world?
Two boys are eating oranges.
The answers to these questions can be quite complicated.
The slide titled “America Imports” notes food supply imports, transitioning to baskets of apples being loaded onto a truck.
According to the United States Food and Drug Administration, America imports 15% of its food supply from other countries, with approximately 32% of vegetables, 55% of fruits and 94% of seafood coming from somewhere outside of the USA. We truly eat from a global grocery store. When food comes to us from another country, it takes time and energy to get here.
A forklift places many food baskets on a tractor at a storage facility.
When you are talking about fresh foods, this often means that farmers and food processors have to find a way to make sure the food is still fresh and safe by the time it gets to your home.
A refrigeration truck departs from the facility.
Food is kept fresh when traveling from its source to our supermarkets through packaging, refrigeration, and the addition of preservatives.
A woman examines packaged food in a supermarket, placing two bottles in her grocery box. Transitioning to another woman checking a bottle by shaking it.
Preservatives are chemicals added to foods to help prevent spoiling, improve appearance and/or maintain the food’s nutritional quality. Food preservatives are regulated by the government to make sure they are safe for human consumption.
Small crops cover the farmland.
Today’s agriculture produces the safest, most affordable, and most diverse food supply in the history of mankind. Growers produce food in as sustainable a manner as possible.
Various natural and processed food items are neatly stacked inside a grocery store.
Much effort and many decisions go into producing the food you see readily available in a grocery store.