Food for thought

Milk is 2% from Dairyland. The leading company is Saputo from Montreal Quebec. This company is fairly large and has many locations around Canada. I have also discovered there is a manufacturer right in Burnaby, where I live. So I am assuming the travel distance to transport the milk is not that great and almost insignificant in this case.

Milk ingredients: Partly skimmed milk, vitamin A palpitate, vitamin D.

Cereal that i consumed were Honey Nut Cheerios from General Mills. The company is located in Minneapolis in the United States. Although the company is located in Minneapolis I believe there are closer areas of production. But there isn’t a producer here in BC, so either way this particular brand of cereal requires a large amount of fossil fuel to allow its transportation into our stores and homes.

Major cereal ingredients: Whole grain oats, sugar, modified corn starch, honey, brown sugar syrup, salt, etc.

My main concern with this breakfast meal is how whole grain oats, honey, brown sugar are made and combined to make the cereal. “Whole grain oats” are processed and are no longer whole wheat. The major difference is that “whole grain oats” have been refined and do not contain the full nutrients whole wheat provides. That means within our focus, “whole grain oats” require more energy to alter the grains to produce this particular cereal. Both the honey and brown sugar act as a sweetener for Honey Nut Cheerios. I’m not positive in the overall production of the cereal, but am certain it takes alot of energy to combine all these ingredients into a small cardboard box.

I had peach yogurt from Foremost Dairies. The original company is Loblaws inc. and is located in Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary. This company is also handling many other brand, the major business is President Choice found in Superstore.

Major ingredients of this yogurt: Slim milk, fruitblend, modified corn starch, sugar, modified milk ingredients, carrageenan, pectin, active bacterial cultures.

My major issues with the fossil fuels in this peach yogurt concern the travel distance and the ingredients that are “modified”. Because the company is located in three important cities of Canada, I’m sure there must be a producer closer by than Calgary. But I am not positive. If this yogurt was produced in Calgary fossil fuels would be used in transferring the products to Vancouver, and the distance between the cities is about 675km. Also, IF this yogurt was produced in Calgary the trucks would most likely be built to keep the yogurt products cooler because of their dairy consistency. This refrigerating process would use extreme energy patterns to regulate this process.

My main concern with the ingredients that are “modified” is that they have been altered with excessive energy. “Modified corn starch” is physically and chemically changed natural corn starch. The methods of alteration require energy processes to boil, break down, and ultimately change the natural corn starch. “Modified milk ingredients” are also not in milk’s natural state, they have been changed chemically. Some have said modified milk strips away nutrients, while injecting chemicals into the dairy. So like corn starch, the method to modify milk would require a large sum of energy in turn, fossil fuels to produce that energy.