Americans are renowned for diverse cuisine tastes as every state boasts of a specific palate specialty. Nonetheless, a typical dinner often comprises dishes made from potatoes, meat—particularly beef and chicken, — and vegetable soups. Accordingly, a plate with tater tots (fried potatoes), chicken wings, spinach soup, and a piece of watermelon for dessert would qualify as ideal in any American household.
Ingredients for such a wholesome meal usually originate from different places. According to the interactive map by Khoury et al. (2016), potatoes in the Western hemisphere are sourced from the Andes and tropical South America. The spinach used to prepare soup originates from West and Central Asia, while watermelons are native to Southern Africa (Khoury et al., 2016). The interactive map does not focus on meat products, and therefore, the impossibility of ascertaining the origins of the chicken meat. It is evident that diversity of origin is a hallmark of many foods on typical American dinner plates.
The most surprising revelation is that none of the ingredients necessary for the preparation of the meal mentioned above come from North America. Everything in that list is imported – in some cases, from far off places such as Africa and Asia. This finding elicits questions on the state of America’s food security being that the nation is seemingly over reliant on imported food products. The interactive map shows that North America is primarily a producer of fruits (Khoury et al., 2016). However, these fruits are just one portion of a wholesome and nutritious meal, and thus, the failure to produce other food products potentially renders North America a food insecure continent. Nonetheless, these findings reiterate the claim by Cherfas (2016) on the globalization of America’s food supply chain. However, this state of affairs is unfortunate because it makes America dependent on the rest of the world, which may cast aspersions on its status as the world’s sole superpower.
References
Cherfas, J. (2016). A map of where your food originated may surprise you. NPR. Web.
Khoury, C., Achicanoy, H. A., Navarro-Racines, C., Sotelo, S., & Jarvis, A. (2016). Where our food crops come from. CIAT Blog. Web.