A Borderless Society

SC300: Big Ideas in Science-From Methods to Mutation

Unit 6 Assignment

May 29, 2012

A Borderless Society

Most of the time, I only eat two meals a day. This made it easy to choose which meals to use. My first meal consisted of strawberries and grapes. My second meal consisted of rib eye steak, asparagus, and potato salad. After doing some research, I found that although strawberries are grown in many states, more than 75% of the strawberry crop comes from California. As for my grapes, the source likely changes depending on the season. Between the months of July and December, most grapes sold in North America come from California; however, between the months of January and June most grapes come from the country of Chile. The rib eye steaks are from Iowa born and raised beef cattle. The asparagus was actually fresh out of my own garden here at home. The main ingredients in my homemade potato salad are the potatoes, onions, and celery. Potatoes are grown commercially in 36 of the 50 states, but the highest potato-producing state is Idaho. I like to use onion in many of the dishes I make so I use onions out of my own garden. Celery is available year-round and in the United States, California grows the most celery. I purchased the strawberries, grapes, steaks, potatoes, and celery at my local Fareway store here in Belmond, Iowa. Considering the chain of events to get these products from the farm to my table, it is reasonable to see that there are some costs involved. Those costs would include the cost of fuel for transporting those products and the cost of storing the products to keep them fresh until they arrive at their destination. My strawberries and celery probably came from California, the potatoes from Idaho, and the grapes from Chile considering it is only May. Because all of these food products came from within the United States, with the exception of the grapes, I am going to say that the costs probably were not too great. Because the grapes came from...