Monday, March 12, 2012

Eating my Way to My Future

I have never given a lot of thought to how our foods get to our tables. Take for example, the cheese I just had for dinner. Where did that come from? I know that a (faceless, because I don't know them personally) dairy farmer raised some cows (a milk producing sort???) and then milked them and somehow, the cow's milk ended up with a cheese maker and then to Scheffler's Deli in St. Lawrence Market.

Right, that's the kid version. In the last year or so, I have started to consider more about where all this comes from and how it is regulated, if at all, to our tables and tummies. There's a lot about our food, that the common person has absolutely no clue about. And some prefer that it remain this way. I don't. I want to understand and learn where my food has come from and see what has made it the way it is.

I wanted to find a farmer to deal directly with, to purchase eggs and lemme tell you, I can't find anyone online. And I definitely wouldn't know how to reach them by telephone and wouldn't be walking up to their door to order farm fresh eggs.

In the meantime, I started dabbling in the stock market earlier this year to help enhance my savings for the coming year when I'll need to generate a further payment on the condo which I have bought (pre-build). One company that caught my eye was Viterra (TSE:VT). I thought that what Viterra did was really interesting. It was helping to answer some of my questions!

Viterra (one of their many lines of business) is essentially to act as a grain broker/trader between the collective of farmers and the the vendors/purchasers and help them market their product as a collective. They also process the grain and act as the physical distributors/sellers. Just amazing. I didn't realize this was all happening while I'm happily munching away on my wheat crackers.

I think I've found something that finally interests me enough to want to actually learn about it and understand what it is. Looks like I'm getting right on track.

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