Seafood is from the Ocean, not Nebraska

As you read in my last blog, one of my opinions is to never expect fresh seafood after a certain amount of miles.

What in the world do I mean by that. Let's look at the logistics:

Seafood is from the ocean (duh). 

The ocean (either Atlantic of Pacific) is on the eastern and western boarders of the USA, respectively. 

To get seafood to places that are not touching ocean, you have to transport it by air, train or truck (more than likely truck).

Cost of gas is crazy in the US currently.

Getting stuff from the ocean to Nebraska is going to cost more than ocean to 25mi from the ocean. 

Getting it there "fresh" requires it to be frozen to, as the companies put it, "seal in the freshness". Which really means, "So it won't go rotten". But no guarantees. Who know how many times it's been thawed and refrozen?

Why don't I like to buy seafood if I'm only 200mi from an ocean then? 

My answer seems simple to me, but I'll explain it. My answer: because I don't know when it died. This goes for all of my meat. I like to know when my food died to I know how long it has been frozen, shipped, delivered and sitting on a shelf. With frozen shrimp, for example, I have no idea when it died and was processed. 

When I get my meat from a butcher or from a farmer who raises his or her own meat, I can ask when it died and see if I think it would be worth it. I can also ask if it was raised and killed in a humane way, if it was full of antibiotics, what it ate, and if was raised in my state. I think these are all very important questions that do make a difference when it comes to how the meat tastes.

I know you can’t do this with things like fresh seafood or wild game. But with that you can assume that it was not full of antibiotics or force fed corn.

To clarify, I have no issue with frozen meat. I think freezing is a great way to preserve things. But what I do have issue with is the amount of fuel and energy it takes to get seafood to places that seafood would not naturally be. 

I am a creature of eating things that would naturally grow in the environment around me. I don't eat things like Kobe beef, lobster, clams or papayas because they don't grow in the Northwestern US (or at least in my neck of the woods). They have to be imported, processed, and distributed. Also, in order for fruits to be ripe by the time they reach there, they are truck ripened instead of vine ripened. If you want quality, you have to skip the bananas and go for something in your area. I’ll have more about the topic of transporting food in blogs to come.

For now, I’d like to leave you with the question: Where did your food come from and how long did it take to get to your plate?