Veggie Patch Falafel Chickpea Balls – The website has no available information on where they were produced… http://www.veggiepatch.com/products/canadian

I’m going to presume they were manufactured in Canada since the website had a Canadian products section. I imagine the chickpeas came from either the Mediterranean, western Asian, the Indian subcontinent, Australia, and the Great Plains (1). Considering we are in Canada it makes the most sense that they came from the American Great Plains. As this is the main ingredient I imagine a majority of what I pay goes towards the processing of chickpeas and the baking of the falafel.

Thanks to Wikipedia here are the top chickpea producers of 2005.

*Perhaps the chickpeas in my falafel traveled all the way from India. It’s hard to know when there isn’t much information provided on the website. Way to let me be engaged with the product and know what I’m consuming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jD0A4qnvRQ

When it comes to my choice to eat pre-made falafel for lunch, I think it is hard to ignore how wasteful it seems. The package is quite large and comes with about 10 balls in it (normally lasting me a week for a package). The package here in Toronto is recyclable but it still seems unnecessary.

(1) “Chickpea.” Wikipedia. n.d. Web. 12 July 2013. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickpea>