"Nowledge" is Power

I have always loved the boneless skinless chicken breasts that the Good Foods store sells.  They not only look pretty, all pink, bright and glossy, but they taste far superior to that funky tasting crap Tyson puts out that you can buy for a song at Wal-Mart. I have been happily buying my Good Foods chicken whenever I feel the urge for poultry and naively went on my way thinking I was buying locally raised fowl.  After all, it is right next to the Montana raised steaks and pork tenderloins. 

So you can imagine my dismay when I actually bothered to read the label and realized that the chicken is not only not from Montana but, horror of horrors, NEBRASKA!  I’m from Oklahoma and being the good Okie that I am, I was raised to believe nothing good comes out of Nebraska.  Here’s one of my favorite Nebraska jokes: What does the “N” stand for on the helmets of University of Nebraska football players?  Answer: Nowledge. 

The new me, who’s trying to eat more local foods, wondered why it is that people can raise chickens in their backyards here in Montana but I can’t find locally raised chicken in my favorite grocery store. So I decided to ask.  (As a side note, you can buy a locally raised chicken from Choteau or St. Ignatius at Good Foods but it’s the entire bird.  No neatly broken down parts.)   

According to the very nice gentleman behind the meat counter at Good Foods with the very nice Australian accent, there is no chicken manufacturing here in Montana. It seems that no one has really made a serious effort to try and get an operation set up and if someone did, there probably wouldn’t be enough chickens raised locally to supply the buyers.  I had no idea.  He agreed that it was an interesting situation and I assumed that with all the knowledge he had to give he had this question before.  

So the moral of this story is threefold.  One, always read the labels and make sure what you’re buying is local. Two, if you want to see some changes in your local food supply, ask questions, contact your local grocery store, research local small scale chicken farmers.  Maybe you can be the one to change the system.  The third and most important, don’t sweat the stuff you can’t immediately change.  I’ll continue to buy those cornhuskers’ chickens without any guilt knowing that it’s the best I can do right now.  Remember, any small effort you make toward supporting local foods can in turn have a profound impact on our local economy and your long-term health. 

Nebraska. Of all places.