Oh my.
How the world has changed.
I saw an Associated Press article in the newspaper today, describing where much of today's picnic food comes from, and was, to put it slightly, taken aback.
How the world has changed.
Of course, these statistics might exclude foods grown for purposes other than to be put into plastic containers.
When I was a little lad in grade school, certain statistics were engraved into our heads, including the fact that (a) Nebraska and Montana were the leading beef-producing states, Texas a poor dismal third, and (b) only Iowa and Illinois produce more corn than Nebraska, and the top two have to dedicate their whole entire states to the product, whereas corn is grown only in the eastern one-third of Nebraska.
That was then; apparently now is different.
The article mentions that if one is cooking beef, it came from Texas, or Nebraska, or Kansas, in that order. I dunno what happened to Montana and Wyoming since I was a little lad.
I have to somewhat disagree with this, with all due respect and honor to our friends from Texas. Cattle from Texas are made for beef jerky, not for picnics.
The article says that if one is having hot dogs, mostly likely the pork came from Iowa, or North Carolina, or Minnesota.
This floored me, because I've been through Iowa too many times to count, and Minnesota several times, and I've never associated either state with pigs. I've never been to North Carolina, and I've never thought of that state as producing pigs.
Cotton and peanuts and dead fish maybe, but not pigs.
If one is having baked beans, according to the article, the beans most likely came from North Dakota. That's easier to imagine, but one suspects beans are not the major crop in North Dakota.
The article further alleges that if one is having corn-on-the-cob, it most likely came from Florida, California, Georgia, or New York.
This particular "fact" freaks me out, which is why I'm wondering if the article is using only crops grown for grocery stores, and not crops grown, period.
What happened to Iowa, to Illinois, to the eastern one-third of Nebraska?
I've been to New York several times, and as a little lad spent some summers in upstate New York, dairy country. I don't recall ever seeing a single cornstalk in New York.
I've never been to Florida, California, or Georgia, and it boggles the mind that these places produce corn, apparently in large quantities. I've always associated Florida with oranges, California with whineries, and Georgia with peanuts and cotton, never with corn.
Near the end of the article, it mentions that if one is having potatoes today, they most likely came from Idaho or eastern Washington, which makes sense, but one wonders what happened to Maine.
Probably Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia out-produce Maine in potatoes now.
As an aside, at the end of the article, it mentions that America does not produce many fireworks, but of those America produces, the biggest customer is Australia.
I have no idea what's up with that.
