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I absolutely want to know where my produce comes from. I kept buying the same boxes of grape tomatoes at the super market. One day I looked at the label and saw that the tomatoes came from Mexico. I stopped buying them because I remember that when DDT was banned in the U.S. we dumped it into Mexico. That information about DDT and Mexico is old but I have no idea how trustworthy their methods of farming are now.
Can we find out whether they use DDT today?

Another place I wouldn't eat food from is China. The shrimp scare, the toothpaste issue, and the other scandals about quality control doesn't build any trust in people about China. Simply don't trust them. They don't seem to care enough about people's health.

As someone who spent more than thirteen years in Japan,and before that went to school in Annapolis, Maryland, when it was a working fishing port, I was distressed by Sarah Murray's casual dismissal of any interest in fresh fish. But I was appalled at her ignorance of rice cultivation in the U.S., which she revealed in her statement that rice can't be grown in California. California rice is so highly appreciated in Japan that Japanese visitors to the U.S. buy it for souvenirs to take home.
The following link to Wikipedia's entry on rice provides a brief overview of rice cultivation in this country since colonial times: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice#In_the_United_States

Amanda Mayer Stinchecum
Brooklyn, New York

It's been a long time since the days of the Roman Empire. Everything has a price beyond the dollar and the price of eating whatever we want whenever we want it may not be the best way to eat.

Fruit picked early and ripened off the tree is not going to be as nutritious or tasty as those allowed to have the enzymes do their thing till ready to be picked. There's a lot of ways to screw up food from seed to table. The farther things are shipped and the fewer channels for accountability, the more likely we'll have less nutritious and possibly less safe food.

The NYS Sustainable Working Group, back in the 90s, had a statistic that in NY we import 85% of our food but there's enough arable land in NY State to feed the entire state (short of things that can't be grown here like citrus, etc). We need more farmers & ag programs!

I started a CSA 10 years ago and eating local is eye opening (and delicious and economical). People eat things they used to not like because they're never tasted it fresh out of the ground and it tasted like a different vegetable.

Labelling food as to where it comes from would be great. Fairway used to and then they stopped. Back during the Mad Cow scare with Canada? They NEVER found out where all the cows came from. How dreadful is that???

I think it would be wonderful if more people cooked at home and if they cooked seasonally. I cook nearly every day, but it took "Animal Vegetable Miracle" to get me to really think seasonally. This past spring was the spring of asparagus.

There are still asparagus in the market today...God only knows where it came from. I wouldn't touch it with a 3,000-mile pole.

PS - this all started with me when I got a scary bone scan reading - today I get to see if this revolution in my eating habits has made an impact on my bone composition and I do not trust what big pharma tells me - I found out that what benefits me benefits everyone - farmers. cows, our environment - its amazing how little we know about all we eat! Probably great-grandmothers know most...

I am fortunate to live close enough to the Park Slope Food Coop, so produce is labeled if it is locally grown within 500 miles. I do take that into account when shopping there, and also like to frequent the Green Markets and CSA's in the growing season.

Locally grown just tastes better. There's also a fair amount of food grown within the 5 boroughs at community gardens, rooftop beehives, etc.

more and more I am thinking about the amount of carbon emitted by the transport of the foods that I buy. I am starting to choose foods more locally

I love buying food from farmers I know. I am so accustomed to doing this that I prefer to avoid supermarkets and don't trust supermarket food. Just read Sally Fallon and Mary Enig on how denatured our food supply is (frightful!) - it's enough to make you stick as close to the farm as possible! They have 4 websites! These are two:
http://www.westonaprice.org/splash_2.htm which is full of searchable nutritional info

and http://www.ftcldf.org/ which lobbies to support small, independent farmers

We are lucky to have buying clubs and csas in NY - and I think it's something Americans can be proud of, to be wont to take these initiatives against big anything (agribusiness)

I really wish that all PACKAGED food had to label where its ingredients came from. If something says it contains "wheat gluten" - then I'd like to know if it came from China and might have melamine in it.

It's easier with produce. The Park Slope Food Coop labels all of its produce, and it helps me to make more thoughtful choices.

The local Pathmark does not label origins.

I worked at a farm and produce market in Western NY as a teenager, and there was nothing better then eating the local produce as the seasons progressed. Strawberries in June, Corn in August, Apples in September. I didn't think about it at the time, but the products we sold were supporting many local farmers. We also grew many things that the supermarket carried, but their's were from California.

I think it would be great to have all foods labeled with where they originated and, perhaps even where they traveled along the way. The trail of all the multiple ingredients in highly processed foods products is, I am sure, very long and complicated!

I am very happy to have many farmers' markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) sites in New York City to make it possible to easily get food from local sources, it is good for our health, good for the environment, and just plain good to feel "connected" and "wholesome" in our often over-busy lives.

I also think it is wonderful to have children have as many opportunities as possible with buying, cooking, and eating local foods (and of course it is great for children to get to grow some food for themselves too!)

Thanks for doing a show on this topic, I really look forward to it!