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Old 10-02-2007, 10:33 AM
 
Location: Journey's End
10,203 posts, read 27,071,394 times
Reputation: 3946

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I love where I live but I will miss the Co-op. I am actually thinking of opening one myself (I did years ago, with modest but reasonable success in NYC).

Who knows, maybe I'll be able to have my own organic garden next Spring--Summer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by katzenfreund View Post
Thanks for the tip, Northampton would be the closest, but it's an hour from here, BUT we were going to check the place out anyway, so I will look for that!

Brattleboro has the nicest health food co-op, I wish it wasn't over a 2 hour drive from us, darn....
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Old 10-02-2007, 10:42 AM
 
Location: wrong planet
5,161 posts, read 11,411,347 times
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Good idea, to have your own garden! We will do that next year, start out small and expand. I don't want pesticides, herbicides, gene manipulated food, irradiated etc. etc. If you grow your own - you know exactly what you are eating.

There is a little tiny food co-op in Worcester, but they mostly sell bulk foods! The Brattleboro co-op was amazing! Loved it :-)
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Old 10-02-2007, 11:15 AM
CBB
 
Location: Munich + FL, 32082
481 posts, read 2,237,974 times
Reputation: 400
I totally agree with katzenfreund (ich bin auch ein Katzenfreund! ) - food, at least in Germany, is a lot cheeper than in the U.S. I'm always shocked when I see U.S. prices. As she said, what you pay for a pound, we pay for a kilo. We have an enormous competition in retail, which keeps the prices very low. That's the reason why Walmart had to withdraw from the German market, btw.

Quality of fresh produce is the same, imo. When in the U.S., we never buy anything at the deli though, because prices are just ridiculous. We can have all the European specialties here anytime for a third of the U.S. price. Whether here or there, we always prefer to buy local products. And I'm glad to have a Fresh Market in Ponte Vedra Beach, we buy there often.

We have a lot of fat people here as well, although I have to say that you hardly ever see extreme obesity like in the U.S. And 2 or 3 cars per family are nothing special here, too. I don't know in which country the poster was who said that only the rich have 2 cars? Perhaps Romania
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Old 10-02-2007, 11:41 AM
 
Location: wrong planet
5,161 posts, read 11,411,347 times
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probably in Latvia, Poland, Lituania, Hungary or Estonia, which are the poorest EU countries...
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Old 10-02-2007, 11:43 AM
 
Location: wrong planet
5,161 posts, read 11,411,347 times
Reputation: 4336
CBB, I am always happy to see a Whole Foods, they have some of the best european cheese selection (but at very high prices) and also have fairly decent bread...and appealing produce sections. Also I love their selection of greek olives and they have some very good chocolate, too :-).
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Old 10-02-2007, 11:55 AM
 
Location: Anchorage, Alaska (most of the time)
1,226 posts, read 3,638,893 times
Reputation: 1934
Living in Sweden...and spent one month in Alaska this summer...and a little over a week in Lodon (this year)...and had an American talking about the US and Sweden on my English lesson today...
The food is A LOT less expensive in the US (and the UK) than in Sweden. Please give me your prices! (That's one of the two things the American wouldn't miss when returning to the US: the food prices here. I can understand him... The other thing was the weather, which is unusual for this year, so...)

People own two cars in some cases. Actually, in my family (though we live on the country were we don't have anything else than two school buses/day) we have two cars: my mom has one and my brother has one. (I have a moped) It's not about economy. People in general don't need more than one car due to our well developed public transportation. And we can't really afford to use our cars too much: the gas prices, my oh my...See them and you'll NEVER complain again in the US...
And of course, we're used to walking and taking the bike a lot more than you do in the US. (Which is something the American would actually miss, along with our free health care and "free everything" that's not really free due to our high taxes. I still like civilized socialism, though)

I belive the food is better here in Sweden than in the US. When I was over there, I spent some time scrutinizing the food declarations...oh my! Much of the stuff in there is forbidden since a long time over here. Not said though that we don't have strange chemicals in our food- we just don't have as much, in general.

In my family, since we're not even close to rich, we can't afford to buy fresh vegetables or fruit all the time. But, since we feel it's for our best, and since we know we need it, we sacrifise other things, such as chips and candy and such, and buy the fruit and vegetables instead.
With McDonald's and Burger King and all that "American" stuff that are becoming more and more succesful here, we do have much of what the US does. But we have another kind of mentality (as the American tried to explain. Yeah, wrong word to use with a bunch of teenagers in the late afternoon) here, that is common in the European countries. If we have to go somewhere, and if it's not too long (I'm not talking 50 yards here! More like...3 miles) it's more common to either just walk there or take the bike. The car is...redundant. It's just 3 miles or so. Besides, "the air is good for you!"

(Sorry, had to throw that in... Living in the country... Trust me, "the air is good for you" is one of the most used lines in my childhood whenever I wanted to go somewhere...Moms, huh?)
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Old 10-02-2007, 12:07 PM
 
7,330 posts, read 15,341,033 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by katzenfreund View Post
CBB, I am always happy to see a Whole Foods, they have some of the best european cheese selection (but at very high prices) and also have fairly decent bread...and appealing produce sections. Also I love their selection of greek olives and they have some very good chocolate, too :-).
Trader Joes has a great, inexpensive selection of cheese. Way cheaper per pound than most.

I get my fruits and veggies from local markets. In my neighborhood in Chicago, farmers bring in fresh fruits and veggies from farms in the area all summer and fall. One of the city lots serves as an ersatz farmer's market. It's great.

In the off season, we have lots of places that specialize in inexpensive produce and ethnic foods. Between those sources, there's great food if you know where to look.

Unfortunately, it's not that way in much of the US.

I was having a conversation with a friend who grew up in Russia and has lived for a long time in Paris and London. She pointed out that Europeans don't run like Americans do. I replied that it's because they walk. Outside of large cities, who walks or rides bikes for transportation in the States? For recreation, maybe, but not for transportation. That's huge.

It seems some people here are convinced that they must disparage Europe, but in this case, I think there are some things they do a little better than the states. Food is one. Regular activity is another. It's ridiculous to think that people are starving in Europe. Go there. Hang out. People live pretty well.
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Old 10-02-2007, 12:22 PM
 
17 posts, read 66,550 times
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yes I do concur that in general Europeans (at leeast on the continent) have fresher food and less snacking between meals. It really would play a part in your overall health imho. Having been abroad 3 times to many different countries in Europe only England stands out as not having a lot of fresh veggies and fruit. Also I've worked as a host family coordinator with French students visiting America the last 3 summers and they usually are amazed at the lack of fresh veggies and fruit in the American diet. They also tend to be pretty careful about not snacking and wonder why Americans eat so much. And are so obese. The two go hand in hand. AMericans like their fast food and soda and the combo is very dangerous. Esp if you don't exercise!
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Old 10-02-2007, 12:27 PM
CBB
 
Location: Munich + FL, 32082
481 posts, read 2,237,974 times
Reputation: 400
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweden View Post
Trust me, "the air is good for you" is one of the most used lines in my childhood whenever I wanted to go somewhere...Moms, huh?)
Seems to be universal. I've also heard that sentence all the time.
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Old 10-02-2007, 12:29 PM
 
Location: wrong planet
5,161 posts, read 11,411,347 times
Reputation: 4336
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaBredChicagoan View Post
Trader Joes has a great, inexpensive selection of cheese. Way cheaper per pound than most.

I get my fruits and veggies from local markets. In my neighborhood in Chicago, farmers bring in fresh fruits and veggies from farms in the area all summer and fall. One of the city lots serves as an ersatz farmer's market. It's great.

In the off season, we have lots of places that specialize in inexpensive produce and ethnic foods. Between those sources, there's great food if you know where to look.

Unfortunately, it's not that way in much of the US.

I was having a conversation with a friend who grew up in Russia and has lived for a long time in Paris and London. She pointed out that Europeans don't run like Americans do. I replied that it's because they walk. Outside of large cities, who walks or rides bikes for transportation in the States? For recreation, maybe, but not for transportation. That's huge.

It seems some people here are convinced that they must disparage Europe, but in this case, I think there are some things they do a little better than the states. Food is one. Regular activity is another. It's ridiculous to think that people are starving in Europe. Go there. Hang out. People live pretty well.
When we lived in a DC suburb it was much easier to get good produce, we had a wonderful health food store a couple of miles from our house. The prices were high, like $1.99 a pound for potatoes or onions, $4.99 a pound for tomatoes etc. But at least the food was organic and fresh and tasty! So worth the expense to me. Now that we live in Central MA, it is really hard to get good produce, the stuff at the supermarkets is covered in wax and doesn't look or taste very good. So we are going to make the trip to whole foods once in a while and will check out the Trader Joes, too!

I mentioned the walking on another thread. I used to do so much walking because everything was closer together. It was built in exercise and I used to be very slim (not emaciated, LOL).... Since we moved to the US 15 years ago, I have to make much more of an effort to keep my weight down, because I can't walk to the shops etc. like I used to. Everything is so spread out. I go back to Germany once every year for a month and I do more walking in that one month, than I do in a year here! So I try to comensate with yoga etc. But people have to make a conscious effort to get exercise here, where over there it was just part of each day.

And your last point is exactly true IMO.
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