Hawaiian Pineapple=5,000 Miles
Pineapple is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay and had spread to the Caribbean by the time Columbus arrived, who brought it back to Europe. By the beginning of the 19th century it was introduced into the Philippines, Hawaii, Zimbabwe and Guam. On Hawaii commercial cultivation began in the 1880s. Today Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire and the Philippines dominates world cultivation.
One of the common variety found in US grocery stores is Smooth Cayenne, which originated in Hawaii.
Chilean Wine=5,500 Miles
It may have come a long way to get to your NYC wine merchant, but wines from Chile sent by boat have far lower transportation emissions than sending them on a truck the 3,000 miles from Napa or Oregon.
Wine has been produced in Chile going back to the 16th century, when Spanish conquistadors brought grape vines with them to plant. By the mid 18th century, French varietals were introduced. But it wasn’t until the late years of the 20th century when the Chilean wine industry really began to expand—between 1995 and 2005, the number of wineries increased six-fold. Chile now is the fourth largest exporter of wines to the United States.
Ethiopian Coffee=7,000 Miles
Coffee was first discovered and in Ethiopia in the 9th century, from where it spread northwards to Egypt and Yemen, and on through the Muslim World to Europe, Indonesia and the Americas.
Today, Ethiopia is the fifth largest coffee exporter in the world, producing about 1.7 million tonnes of beans per year. That amount is dwarfed by the world’s largest producer, Brazil, which produces about 17 million tonnes per year. Globally, over one hundred million people in the developing world are dependent on coffee as their primary source of income.
Korean Ramen=7,000 Miles
I confess that I have a soft spot for instant ramen. Perhaps not the most nutritionally sound thing to eat with great frequency, but every once and a while it seems to be the perfect thing to eat. My personal favorite is Shin Ramyun, produced in South Korea. This spicy ramen has been produced in South Korea since 1986, is exported to 80 different countries and the highest selling brand of instant noodles in Korea.
Again, probably not the best thing for you in any great quantity, and there’s a lot of packaging containing those dried noodles, spice packet and dehydrated vegetables.
Indian Papadum=7,200 Miles
I have yet to meet a person that once they’ve been introduced to papadum. These thin lentil or chickpea flatbreads, crackers, wafers (call them what you will) are seriously tasty. Whether plain or dipped in chutney you really can’t go wrong.
In New York you can get ones imported from the UK and India and while both are good, somehow the ones I’ve had from India are just a little bit better.
Thai Jasmine Rice=8,500 Miles
There are plenty of rice varieties around the world that are plenty tasty in their own way, but one which really stands out for me is Thai Jasmine rice. Though you can probably find jasmine rice grown closer to New York City than 8,500 miles away in Thailand, the Thai rice just seems to cook up a better and have better flavor. Terroir influences wine taste and no doubt influences rice taste as well.
What you may not know is that Jasmine rice, officially known as the Kao Horm Mali 105 variety, wasn’t discovered (named is probably more accurate) until 1954.
Madagascar Vanilla=8,500 Miles
Vanilla is really a great example of how the world has had a globalized economy (albeit in a different and slower form) for quite a long time. Derived from orchids originating in Mexico, vanilla was introduced to Europe in the early 16th century by the Spanish. Due to the way that vanilla orchid is pollinated though (by a particular bee) attempts to grow it outside its native land proved futile until the 1840s. It was then that a French-owned slave on the island now known as Réunion in the Indian Ocean discovered how to hand-pollinate the plant.
Today to majority of the world’s vanilla is grown on Madagascar and Indonesia, with the former producing 6,200 tonnes per year (59% of world supply). Due to the labor intensive production of vanilla—the women in the photo are grading vanilla beans—it is the second most expensive flavoring in the world, after saffron.
Sri Lankan Tea=8,700 Miles
Like dog people and cat people, I’m pretty sure there are tea people and coffee people. Personally, while I do like coffee and drink it fairly often, if it came down to a desert island decision of one or the other, it’s tea all the way. (I’d also choose a cat, by the way…)
Ceylon tea (called such after the former name of Sri Lanka) is one of my favorite black teas—though I admit to having many favorites. The interesting historical thing about it is that it wasn’t until the 1850s, when a fungal outbreak ruined coffee production on the island and the British landlords thought it high time to diversify into tea. From 1880 to 1890 tea production on the island increased from 23 pounds to 22,900 tons.
Sri Lanka is currently the world’s third largest exporter of tea, with 19% of the global market.
New Zealand Lamb=9,000 Miles
From New York, New Zealand is just about as far away as you can get, right up there with western Australia and part of Indonesia for being on the backside of beyond. Though I don’t personally eat lamb, New Zealand does make a big deal of the quality of its lamb so here it is:
Sheep top all other livestock raised in New Zealand, with some 45 million being raised. Cattle come in a distant second at 9 million. The main thing that sets apart New Zealand lamb from other places is that all of the sheep raised there are grass fed, rather than being raised in concentrated animal feeding operations.
While this is undeniably a better use of resources than using massive fossil fuel inputs to raise corn and grain to feed to animals, then killed for their meat, I highly doubt it outweighs sending that grass-fed meat around the world on planes. Ship might be another story.
– from treehugger
If possible Buy local. Eat seasonal. Eat organic.