American Culture: Keeping Public Health Professionals Gainfully Employed

The geographical location of a community is very important for eating habits. Geographic location used to dictate the readiness of certain foods and resources. For example, before the advent of refrigerated trucks and mass-transit of food resources, Americans used to be privileged to only foods which were geographically available (corn and wheat in the Mid-west; beans, squash, and sweet potatoes in the East). Now it is not uncommon to see (in any grocery store) bananas and other tropical fruits for sale in the month of January. How can this be? Bananas are not native to any American region in the dead of winter. Picture the geographical location growing bananas in January and consider the cost [fuel and transportation cost, the economic cost, and the carbonfoot print Burdon] to bring it across the Globe to a southern United States grocery store.