Debate user 'Null' if America has Cheese, Meat, and Bread.

[ThatsMyDog]

Americans are just fucking dumb and lazy to get acquired taste. The convenience of places like Walmart outweighs their drive to try new shit.

That being said, Null being a weirdo even making this an issue.

 

[Caesare]

Definitely that, though I'm not sure in what world hitting a deer is worth it for the damage it does to the truck. Unless maybe someone reinforced the front to handle slamming into a 600lb animal.

You know if it wasn't illegal, there would be at least one guy who did just that.

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

My summary from the MatI thread:

While I'm loving this thread's cheese direction as of late, there's a time factor not being considered, and I'm not talking about aging cheese.

Walmart made a major push into retail grocery from about 2000, ending around 2010 to 2015. They went from only doing grocery commonly in Super Walmarts (remember those? the CSMs had to roller skate!), to doing grocery in about every store they have. This was mirrored by other retailers, including Target. The whole grocery food chain got messed up as a consumers buying trends changed, and a lot chains and mom and pop stores went under, or were bought out.

That said, as part of the consolidation and as an answer to Walmart, many surviving chains have altered their focus, trying for fuller lines of product and more fresh/hot food options. This includes Publix, which Null inexplicably excludes from his Florida analysis. This grocer reaction widely started happening in the 2010s and only really got interrupted by COVID. Retail is still trying to get shit figured out with a lot of people getting staples through Amazon now.

But above said... if I'm remembering my timelines right, Josh's overseas adventures started while the grocery chains had just really started to roll out their response to Walmart. General big box super markets did still kinda suck then (mid 2010s), but were starting to change. They continued to get better, at least until COVID. In parallel, the farm-to-market small industries have also grown since 2010, alongside farmers markets. Just not in the big cities.

Now, given the choice between having only Walmart (or Dollar General or whatever), vs downtown Chicago or San Francisco these days... those are real food deserts. I'd take the Velveeta from Walmart over nothing but maybe some Fruit Rollups and Mountain Dew. Of course, those dead zones happend because of the inevitable conclusion of the urban lifestyle, accelerated by the summer of "I can't 'breathe". That has decimated retail, including grocery, and even many bodegas are deciding it's not worth it.

European cheese is generally better, but American access to a wide range of cheese has also improved, and there are pockets where supply and variety is at least as good as most spots in Europe. But indeed, that is not true across the States.

 

[Grotesque Bushes]

And yet, there seems to be this stigma around home-cooking being unsanitary and/or for poor people.

Please say sike.

 

[Fools Idol]

I've spoke about it before but you can get good food anywhere, even America. The problem is that finding it. Right now the average American eats utter shit that I wouldn't give to my dog but it's just so cheap and plentiful that you have to go out of your way to eat good. Europe has all the same shit as the US but it's much easier to find good food and Europeans are more likely to buy "real" food even when given the option of cheap goy slop.

 

[rrtyui]

I don't know much about this, but it's baffling to me how self-hating us Americans are nowadays. You guys do realize that we got ourselves into this mess right? We could uncuck the government but instead you guys just bitch and moan. Fucking retards.

 

[BubbleButt]

This boy lives in Florida years ago, does the expat thing and still thinks he knows everything about everywhere in the USA.

Legitimately one of Dear Feeder's most unhinged posts on this webzone.

 

[Haloperidol]

I would probably think the US was a culinary wasteland as well if literally the only two places to buy food I could think of were Walmart and Whole Foods.

 

[ForTheHoard]

Did you ever live anywhere in the US besides the Florida panhandle?

 

[Pee Cola]

I hear Milwaukee has a famous artisanal pepperoni maker. Between that, and Wisconsin being the self-proclaimed cheese capital of the Western Hemisphere, how can anyone claim that America is an epicurean wasteland?

 

[BelUwUga]

Most Amerimutts don't even know all their meat is processed in USDA approved slaughterhouses owned by the same four companies.

Slight misinterpretation going on here. The "big 4" process the vast majority of meat in the US by amount (85% per your link). This is not the same as owning the specific processing facilities. 47/50 states have Interstate-approved facilities listed here on the USDA site. There's many more smaller operations that are going to have USDA inspectors on site that only operate intrastate/locally. It's a simple matter of logistics that in normal circumstances you are not going to transport live animals or semi-processed meat if you do not have to. I also found a map of these facilities here and you can compare it to this somewhat dated map showing the "big 4" operations.

If it's a small-volume local butcher they are likely to do best with similar, small-volume processing operations nearby. Economies of scale may help the big operations but meat isn't worth enough to overcome the logistics costs of extensive transportation of a semi-processed carcass. This would fall under the "Retail Exception" described in your UF link. I know for me there is a sizable (in local terms) grass-fed/pasture-raised cattle operation with their own slaughter facilities on site. If a local butcher is looking for half/a whole USDA prime carcass to butcher from, it is almost certainly sourced there.

 

[Out Of Tune Music Box]

Straya

Damper

 

[Cardinal Cardinal]

Definitely that, though I'm not sure in what world hitting a deer is worth it for the damage it does to the truck. Unless maybe someone reinforced the front to handle slamming into a 600lb animal.

Grille Guards, son.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

Walmart while selling inferior groceries compared to the more regional franchises, especially when it comes to produce, will actually have some interesting dairy choices. The Walmart near me even sells Kefir which is like a Ukrainian yogurt drink.

 

[Neurotypical Mantis]

go to a farmers market faggot

 

[spacekatguy]

Null, I'm just going to say you're totally right. I used to live a long time in those podunk towns and while it was amazing to be able to access locally produced dairy and meat, it's not a lifestyle that comes without strings. We had to be highly involved with the community that produced these and sometimes actively participate in raising livestock ourselves. There's a bunch of rules you need to navigate around involving "shares of cows" and other weird bullshit that makes access to good meat viable. I can't challenge you on bread because at least in my area you are right. Unless you bake it yourself with specific ingredients, you're probably not eat quality bread and near me there are effectively no real bakeries. Fortunately, in my area you were still occasionally incentivized to actually bake bread.

In rural Texas there are plenty of livestock farms and local ordinances for processing dairy and cheese are pretty permissive. Some ranches are far better than others, but I can get real milk anywhere and while few places take the time to make the more prestigious cheeses, you can still find them fairly easily. As far as meat, it is EXTREMELY easy to find local butchers who have the permits to slaughter your animals for you. This is so ubiquitous that 10 years olds do it, mostly through an agricultural association like 4H, and usually only a portion of the meat is taken home (given freezer space) and the rest is sold to the local community. Most butchers can typically tell you what ranch it came from, or even specific animals, if they were entered into competition.

I'm not going to get into a pissing contests with any of the European countries that perfected cheese, I'm just gonna say I appreciate the effort it takes, and the reward is worth living out there. Local Texas meat from a good ranch is second to none, though. I would put it up against any country. We know how to cook it right, too.

Despite all of this, I can honestly say about 90% or more of the people who lived in that town still bought their shit at the supermarket and 60% of them never got involved in the agricultural community events or even engaged with us. It was kind of sad to see how disconnected they were. Having moved to a huge city, I now understand their point of view, but I'm still trying to make enough money to buy some land and get my way back into that community in my adult years.

 

[Otoya Yamaguchi]

Very interesting dox bait

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

No more troons and attention whore cows.
White men must embrace...

 

[waffle]

This isn't even true. The whole notion that it's somehow difficult to eat healthy foods in the US is a HAES cope through and through.

I don't know about that. like for instance, it is legitimately difficult to find bread here that isn't Elmer's glue mixed with mystery preservatives. The solution is to eat less bread, not be fat and say "lol it's not my fault, the food is contaminated Q_Q ". Quality as in "this is not the mystery tube meat Null always complains about" does not overlap 1:1 with if eating something will contribute to or detract from your metabolic health.

 

[retard strength II]

Hey friends, is this the Texan/Ohio/Minnesota Kiwi dox thread?