Distr., Manufactured and Available

Carting around what's probably not made in the U.S.

Our quest to purchase goods made only in the United States was challenged when we went grocery shopping. We do most of our produce shopping at our local farmer's market, so we were able to float by for a bit.

I'm not an overzealous label reader in general, but I guarantee you, I checked and double checked every item in our cart. It was easier than I imagined, since most of the items I needed were paper goods, and yeah, it seemed intuitive living in the Pacific Northwest that facial tissue, napkins and paper towels would be resources I wouldn't have trouble sourcing locally. But I was pleasantly surprised that rice milk, soy-gurt, throat-coat tea and grass seed (?!) were all distributed from companies here. The unpleasant part came when I saw the number of times the words "manufactured," "distributed by" and "manufactured for distribution by" appeared. I felt giddy to know that Genisoy is based in Tulsa, Okla. (my hubby's former stomping grounds), but left the store feeling unsteady and unsure that the products, though at the very least probably not sourced from U.S.-grown soybeans, was probably not made in Tulsa, either. It's frustrating.

When I got home I compared my cart's labels with one in my pantry: Nutella The first time I tried Nutella was while traveling overseas, and I was thrilled when I found it in a specialty grocery store a few years after. I was very certain it was not made in the U.S. My jar of Nutella says clearly, "Made in Canada" on the label. Not once during my shopping trip did I see a label as clear as that stating, "Made in the U.S.A." I feel that, despite some effort, I've failed.

There are many resources for products made here, especially online.  Here are a few I found:

- Still Made in USA
- Americans Working
- Made in USA Forever

But it's going to take me a long time to sort through these sites to figure it out. Food seems relatively easy, though it might be more about changing what we eat. If I go back to the rice milk or soy products I enjoy more than dairy, that's automatically more difficult to obtain locally. Our farmer's market has no end to milk and cheese - unpasteurized milk at that. But soy products? I'll see where my research takes me and keep you all posted. If only there were and etsy-style grocery store. 

Another issue that came up this week is my dying cell phone. I have an original iPhone 2, which has been fine for me, given that I use few of the online/app bells and whistles. I figure if the phone part of it still works, then I'm using a phone as a phone. I also text. But this week I could only hear calls if I had the speaker option on. I've been working around it, and maybe even found a solution, but that's another mystery to deal with. It will take much more than research to find a cell phone made entirely in the United States.

An Indecent Proposal

Here's what's brewing in our kitchen this morning:

We are considering living on American made products for an entire year. As I'm typing this, my husband points out we should be living on products "Made in the the United States" instead.
"What's the difference?" I ask.
"'American' could mean Mexico and Canada. 'Made in the US' means just the United States," he pauses to examine the chocolate chip package from which he and our daughters are taking chips out to make our Sunday morning pancakes. "Although some people may not agree with that."
"Okay, let's decide then," I say.
"Made in USA." He declares.

This causes our oldest daughter to ask, "Does this include holidays like Christmas and Easter?" (We have just come from Target, where she ran a little reconnaissance on the Monster High dolls available.)

Doug and I then have a conversation about the level of what I will call "State-Madeness" we're comfortable with. Because we may be looking at a product made here in the US, but perhaps the source material comes from another country. For example, while we're talking about this, he and the girls are making our favorite Sunday morning breakfast: Chocolate chip pancakes. They're making them from scratch, in our kitchen in Washington state. Made in the USA, right? But when we look at the packaging for the ingredients, we aren't entirely sure the chocolate chips, baking powder, flour and salt are made here. The eggs, yes, because we buy them at our local Farmer's Market. A glance at the Nestle Toll House package of chocolate chips doesn't show much. They're distributed by Nestle Baking in Solon, Ohio. Since they're a Swiss company, we're betting they aren't made here.

A quick look at the Hershey website revealed a list of their products still made in Hershey. Great! But where do they source the chocolate from? One of our favorite chocolate makers, Theo Chocolates, based here in Seattle, definitely makes their products here. We've seen them on the factory tour. But they do source their chocolate (in fair partnerships) from other countries.

The Baking Powder (Rumford, made by Clabber Girl) was okay. Not sure about the flour because we'd ditched the packaging after pouring it into a canister. Salt (Morton) was fine.

How many tiers of "State-Madeness" are we willing to go to? What we decided:
- We absolutely prefer items made in the USA, from source to distribution.
- We can deal with an item made in the USA with possible overseas materials.
- "Carbon Credits" will be allowed on complex items, such as electronics. Cell phones, for example, have parts made in the US, but the batteries are made in Japan. If we buy an item like this, we'll make an equitable contribution to benefit children in need in the US. Doug is proposing a $1,000 limit on these items for the year. I don't know how realistic this will be.

Preliminary ground rules: 
- We can keep stuff we already have that hasn't been made in the United States.
- We can accept gifts.

This is hard. We began talking about trying it for a year, but in the small amount of research we're doing this morning (on batteries, athletic gear for Doug's cycling and my running, shoes, breakfast cereal, car parts for our foreign made car), we're getting a taste for how challenging it is to live in an urban environment without relying on foreign made products. So, we'll give it a shot for a month. Four weeks from today. Thank goodness we're starting on Farmer's Market Day.

For you, dear readers: Think about what you're wearing. What you've got in your purse or backpack. How many of those things can you replace with only American made goods? Let me know.