The USA - home, but not home like it was

[Pizza]

Ok, not sure I posted here, but the company sent me to Milan, Italy for two weeks. I got home last night.

I was rejected as a kid for military service (in 1979) because of how my heart sounds -I have a bicuspid aortic valve. (Not a big deal when you are 19, but it scared the two teams of military doctors that examined me). For this reason and others, I've never traveled beyond the USA and Canada. I've never understood what people say when they talk of live in another country. I thought "people are people, we are all pretty much alike". And we are all alike, but we do NOT live alike.

I can see now why people complain that the USA uses so much energy. I spent two weeks in our new division in Milan. They don't air condition the building. They drink soft drinks and beer warm, they don't use ice. They tend to move slowly and are not in a hurry. Their output per person is less than ours, but in some ways their quality of life is better.

I never adjusted to the heat and humidity - but they have. I and my team (two of which were from Japan) sweated thru our clothing every day.

I also noticed that air quality in Milan is way worse than here in Dallas - 60% of the cars on the road are diesel. While there diesel seems very clean (you almost can't smell it, unlike our diesels) the air IS dirtier. I also noticed that over, WAY OVER, 90% cars, vans, etc. are 5 or 6 speed manuals. Yes, clutch pedals everywhere. Our one UBER driver took us around in a Mercedes Van, a new one, it had a six speed manual transmission. All those manuals - one reason I could live there.

Another reason I could live there: The Food. I know know what I was thinking all along, is very true: The American diet and food supply is poison. These corporate farms and over processing of our food is ruining our health. I quit taking my fiber supplement over there, didn't need it - their food is locally raised (even in Milan, food comes from family farms less than 75km away).

Italian food is worth its own paragraph here - I cannot over emphasize the difference. I LOST WEIGHT in two weeks - and I ate three times a day. There is little salt used, so sodium is not an issue. Ingredients are fresh and not altered by GMO, processing, etc.

I have already made up my mind: I will volunteer to take an assigment in Italy. I will be meeting with my VP and manager to go over my view of what I saw in our division over there - and I'm going to volunteer to take an assignment in Milan anytime they need someone to go. I learned some Italian while there and I think I can learn fast enough to enjoy life there (all those working for us there are bi-lingual anyway)

I find it disturbing that we have an "anti-vaccination" movement here in the USA but no "Let's fix our food supply movement". I hear people cry about McDonalds - but I note that Applebees, Burger King, Wendys, Olive Garden, etc. are all just different classes of what McDonald's is - overprocessed fast food with little nutrition.

WHen it comes to food, the USA is a third world country.

 

[Luminous_Rose]

I guess we are picking on the USA a bit, but I agree that the food system needs an overhaul and is amazing how many people grow up not knowinghow to even cook because of the convenience of fast food and our go, go, go busy schedules.

I would love to travel the world one day. Not sure I will have the chance, but I love different cultures, different languages, and ways of life different than our own.

 

[Pizza]

I"m 58, this is my first time out of country. I wish I'd gone on mission trips and other trips when I was younger - the ignorance I've lived in is shameful.

And even cooking at home is not going to work as well as life in other countries. Our corporate farms and over processing of almost every food item on the shelf makes healthy living nearly impossible.

While we have people marching in the streets against vaccination, the public is apathetic and ignorant of the food they are consuming. You can't make America great again if you are feeding Americans over processed, low nutrition, low fiber foods.

I really am hopeful I can get temporarily assigned to the Milan operation. But I doubt that is going to happen.

 

[Luminous_Rose]

Whatever happens always remember Philippians 4!

 

[Michael74]

Some things are the same. I am eating a potato now. Just poke a few holes in the top, and microwave for 5 minutes. Delicious. They take awhile to cool, so I have to plan ahead.

Figs also work good in lieu of fiber.

 

[JohnDB]

European food is really different. It is good and a lot of stuff is locally produced as well as grown.

But America feeds 60% of the world population with those processed foods. Most of those fresh fruits and vegetables in our grocery stores isn't locally grown. They come from Mexico and central/South America.
The cost of living (food, housing, and energy) here is low in comparison of wages where there it is really high...so everyone has a garden and they can't afford to ship anything anywhere.

American wages while living in Europe is very nice...but Europeans usually earn @ 10K per year. Not my idea of a good time.

 

[Northman]

But America feeds 60% of the world population with those processed foods.

How can a country that isn't the worlds #1 food producer feed 60% of the planet?

Europeans usually earn @ 10K per year.

East of Hungary.

 

[JohnDB]

How can a country that isn't the worlds #1 food producer feed 60% of the planet?

Oh really?
Who is the world's leading supplier of food?

And most of what is shipped out isn't something that readily is table ready.

We ship poultry products (including eggs) and beef, pork, sheep, and now goat. Some fish...but not excessive amounts.

Corn products including corn syrup and starch and distilled spirits.
Wheat and rice products as well as soybeans and oats. Japan and China being large consumers of those products.

Sugar is also produced heavily...but it usually comes from beets instead of cane.

Fruit juice concentrates by the cargo ship also goes many places of a variety of fruits from cherry to apple.

Then there are the forestry products from lumber to turpentine. Not much in the way of hardwoods though. A lot of that is coming from South America and Africa.

 

[Pizza]

My Facebook thoughts;

Two weeks ago, I posted on here that the USA is the only First World Country - or some such ignorant nonsense.
Fact is, just cause people in, for example, Italy are limited to a 3.3kW electric consumption (try making A/C work with that amount of energy), does not mean they are trapped in a lower standard of living. I mean, their standard of living is, in some way or ways, lower than ours, that cannot be denied.

But that does not mean that we are better off. Sure, we live more comfortably, our GDP per captia is way higher than theirs - but we also have problems that dont' seem to be an issue in Italy. Obesity, for one. All three of us on the team kept asking ourselves, "Where are the fat people?"

In Milan, the most common mode of transportation is walking, followed by the bicycle. And you even get exercise DRIVING, over 90% of the cars I saw had manual transmissions (so dont' give me crap that a stick is not suited for city driving - I was in MILAN for crying out loud. Hell, even our UBER guy was driving a new Mercedes passenger van - with a six speed stick!)

The big deal was the food. I ate like I normally do, and lost weight. I even went off my fiber supplement, I didn't need it over there. You see, in Italy, there are no corporate farms. In Milan, the food you eat is grown on farms within 50 miles of the city. The diet you eat varies as to where in Italy you live - because what farmers grow varies as to the location. There is no overprocessing of food items. Often, restaurants run out of certain items an adjust the menu for a few days - they do this for a good reason - again, there is no assembly line food preparation like there is here. If fresh ingredients are not available, they are not available - but what IS served is GOOD STUFF. Here in the USA, we don't give a damn about reality - we want what we want - make it happen, even if you must use poor ingredients, preservatives, centralized food processing, artificial ingredients, GMO techniques, etc.

The American consumer, like the American voter, is responsible for much of this. YOu can't "make America great again" just by expanding the economy and lowering taxes. We will only be great again if we get our health under control - and you can't do that with the horrible food supply we currently consume.

I have lived in horrible ignorance for far too long. This trip opened my eyes and they cannot be closed ever again.
If a temporary assignment in Milan becomes available, the company need ask me only once. I already had my issues with the American food supply - I am now convinced we are being poisoned by the industry we all demanded poison us. We got what we wanted - only now we (some of us) realize what we wanted is not what we need.

The Italians feed themselves well. Their health and physical fitness is almost automatic, at least in the city of Milan, where driving is more work than simply walking or bicycling.

I suddenly realize there are better places to live than the USA - IF you can see beyond your blind attitude about how to live. That was something I could not do two weeks ago, but I can now.

I hope for a chance to go back, only this time, for a lot longer than two weeks.

 

[Northman]

Oh really?
Who is the world's leading supplier of food?

A simple search will lead you to see who produces the most of what. For instance on wheat production China doubles that of the US and consumes it themselves. The US may export rice, but the chart from the US on production shows America producing almost 7 million metric tons, while China produced 140.

For simple export value the US does come first, but when you take the whole list into account for the top 25, the US has 149 billion out of a just over 1 trillion market share. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles...he-largest-exporter-of-food-in-the-world.html

Specifics don't even have to be known though. "who produces the world's most food" in the search bar puts the US in third place.

Detailed analysis by the USDA. you have to scroll down to page 15 to start getting into the lists. https://www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/production.pdf

 

[jasonc]

My Facebook thoughts;

Two weeks ago, I posted on here that the USA is the only First World Country - or some such ignorant nonsense.
Fact is, just cause people in, for example, Italy are limited to a 3.3kW electric consumption (try making A/C work with that amount of energy), does not mean they are trapped in a lower standard of living. I mean, their standard of living is, in some way or ways, lower than ours, that cannot be denied.

But that does not mean that we are better off. Sure, we live more comfortably, our GDP per captia is way higher than theirs - but we also have problems that dont' seem to be an issue in Italy. Obesity, for one. All three of us on the team kept asking ourselves, "Where are the fat people?"

In Milan, the most common mode of transportation is walking, followed by the bicycle. And you even get exercise DRIVING, over 90% of the cars I saw had manual transmissions (so dont' give me crap that a stick is not suited for city driving - I was in MILAN for crying out loud. Hell, even our UBER guy was driving a new Mercedes passenger van - with a six speed stick!)

The big deal was the food. I ate like I normally do, and lost weight. I even went off my fiber supplement, I didn't need it over there. You see, in Italy, there are no corporate farms. In Milan, the food you eat is grown on farms within 50 miles of the city. The diet you eat varies as to where in Italy you live - because what farmers grow varies as to the location. There is no overprocessing of food items. Often, restaurants run out of certain items an adjust the menu for a few days - they do this for a good reason - again, there is no assembly line food preparation like there is here. If fresh ingredients are not available, they are not available - but what IS served is GOOD STUFF. Here in the USA, we don't give a damn about reality - we want what we want - make it happen, even if you must use poor ingredients, preservatives, centralized food processing, artificial ingredients, GMO techniques, etc.

The American consumer, like the American voter, is responsible for much of this. YOu can't "make America great again" just by expanding the economy and lowering taxes. We will only be great again if we get our health under control - and you can't do that with the horrible food supply we currently consume.

I have lived in horrible ignorance for far too long. This trip opened my eyes and they cannot be closed ever again.
If a temporary assignment in Milan becomes available, the company need ask me only once. I already had my issues with the American food supply - I am now convinced we are being poisoned by the industry we all demanded poison us. We got what we wanted - only now we (some of us) realize what we wanted is not what we need.

The Italians feed themselves well. Their health and physical fitness is almost automatic, at least in the city of Milan, where driving is more work than simply walking or bicycling.

I suddenly realize there are better places to live than the USA - IF you can see beyond your blind attitude about how to live. That was something I could not do two weeks ago, but I can now.

I hope for a chance to go back, only this time, for a lot longer than two weeks.

3.3 kw,as in 3.3 kwh or just 3.3 kw.?

 

[for_his_glory]

I'm almost 64 and nothing here in America is like it was when we were kids and much healthier. We were raised in rural Pennsylvania and always had fresh veggies out of the garden and the meat was always freshly butchered. There were no chemicals in our diet back in the day. Can't say that for today in most areas, but it's a choice to eat healthy. I don't care much for fast food and rarely eat it.

 

[Pizza]

3.3 kw,as in 3.3 kwh or just 3.3 kw.?

3.3 kW at any one instant, from what the guy told me.

 

[jasonc]

3.3 kW at any one instant, from what the guy told me.

Good lord,they must a use a demand meter to.tell. we do that with commercial customers peak demand is recorded.3.3 would be .03 ,which is not charged.30 kw is the limit .that's really easy to go over,hot water heater ,and fridge would demand more at peak .

 

[Pizza]

Yup. 15 amps at 220 volts. You can see why air conditioning is so seldom used over there.

 

[jasonc]

Yup. 15 amps at 220 volts. You can see why air conditioning is so seldom used over there.

shoot barely have power allotted for hot water and appliances. I could power that house with my 5.5 kw generator then. that's sad.

 

[Michael74]

They can apply for additional power, but they pay a penalty price if they do.

 

[jasonc]

They can apply for additional power, but they pay a penalty price if they do.

You couldn't run my air compressor as it uses 15 amps .think about how little that power use allowed. They can't even charge a tesla .

 

[Michael74]

I think they should vote to change that policy.

 

[Pizza]

They don't have the generation capacity. Don't ask me why not, but they just dont.