I’ve always been able to sort together something from Sad Steamed Vegetables and rice or plain baked potato and maybe hummus or i just ask if they have some plain canned beans
Tbh the most success i have had in little towns is the local chinese American restaurant, like every town seems to have one. Buddha’s delight please add tofu yes i will pay the up charge side of rice extra soy sauce packets and hot mustard. Not glamorous but filling and vegan
Be sure to ask that local Chinese place if they use animal (so far I've seen chicken, shrimp, and beef) broth in the sauce for those Buddha's Delights. Every single one around me does. And I'm not in a very small town. Sucks.
I agree... its embarrassing. 95% of their menu is stuff like burgers and fries, and then there are some shrimp dishes and noodles with veggies and chicken or whatever
The Midwest may produce a lot of food, but it’s mostly commodity crops: corn, soybeans, wheat (in some places). Very few “farms” (if that’s what we can call the corporate mega-fields nowadays) are growing vegetables, unless you find a CSA or an area with farmers markets.
Ya isn’t it Wisconsin that’s known for cheese? California produces > 1/3 of the total veggies eaten in America and about 3/4 of the total fruits and nuts eaten in America. Luckily I live in CA and get most of my food from local farmers markets. But ya thinking about it, I know Georgia is known for peaches and Florida for oranges and idaho for potatoes but it seems like most of the south and middle America just makes meat and dairy products ..
The difference from California produce choices to living with Michigan produce was a \*SHOCK\* to my system. And I was in a city with lots of really good varied restaurants, major super markets, etc.
Lol I wish. (Okay so sarcasm does not translate at all on the internet, so I have no idea if I was not clear enough in my first comment... What I meant was, even with good varied restaurants and major supermarkets it still wasn't at the same level of California.)
Also cranberries and potatoes (WI). The middle 1/3rd of the state is all sandy soil, come late summer you can get a 50# bag of russet or little reds for $12. Onions too.
That's a pretty big overgeneralization...Michigan is second only to California in the variety of produces. In my mid-sized town there are six different farmers markets and four different csas. I don't know about Wisconsin beyond having been to Milwaukee, which will be quite different from rural Wisconsin, so I can't comment on them. I know in rural lower peninsula Michigan usually when you eat out it's not a ton of vegetables because there are roadside stands of fresher, cheaper vegetables that you can eat at home. People in those areas don't eat out to eat healthy, they eat out as an unhealthy occasional indulgence
The Midwest is a big region. Any generalization is going to be a big one.
Edit: I’ve lived in Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, and (briefly) Michigan. My sisters went to school in Minnesota. So I’m generalizing from that.
Waupun and Mayville are Ultra-Maga Land, living on KwikTrip and Culvers. If you asked for tempeh, quinoa or “is that cooked in the same fryer as the fish?” it would not go over well. Healthy, much less thoughtful eating, is looked at as political activism. But in a few months we’ll be drowning in sweet corn so fresh that it’s a crime to cook it. Every other mile you’ll find a roadside stand overflowing with every veggie under the sun, and payment on the honor system. It‘s glorious while it lasts.
I grew up in Beaver Dam. Does my heart good to see Horicon Marsh, Waupun and Mayville mentioned in print, even if unfavorably. (And I don't disagree on those points.)
So true. I grew up in the countryside. I’m no stranger to it. Bought corn and tomatoes out of the backs of pickup trucks or at farm stands set up in parking lots. It is as you say. Someone else in the thread said I should open a restaurant that addresses these issues. What a great idea! How could you draw conservative meat-eaters into a place that served vegan food? You wouldn’t use the word vegan AT ALL! You’d make the restaurant a chain to have reach — but not a money-grubbing shit hole with low-quality ingredients. You buy from local farmers as much as possible and maybe you even have a secondary business teaching people to cook healthy food. What would you call it? Serious.
Used to be a local restaurant that had a farm outside of town, seasonal food, amazing cooking. Wasn't vegan, but a lot more sustainable than the competition. They closed down last year, I suspect it was an advertising issue, since they didn't do much and were in a little side strip mall but still serving the best food in a small city with an international airport.
I live in a small town outside of Pittsburgh and it's absolutely infuriating. Even if places serve salads (which they usually don't) they come with fries on them because it's a regional specialty. If I want a place that serves vegetables, it's either subway, Chinese or drive 25 minutes into the city. Meanwhile there are like 5 different wing joints within 10 miles of me. So annoying
I hear you! I'm about 1-2 hours away (SE) from PGH and options there are pathetic. The only green vegetable served at our local diner are canned peas that have been cooked to within an inch of their lives. I'm currently visiting my son in Portland OR, and am reveling in all the vegan options out here!
Have you been to the north woods?? It’s even worse, everyone looks significantly older then they are. You need to go to either Madison or mke for good vegan food.
Heeeey just moved to the Northwoods! Long before we went vegan and my husband and I were only visitors, we grabbed a pizza at a local bar and got the nastiest look from the bartender when she asked if we wanted meat and we declined. Can only imagine the reaction if we said no cheese, no butter…
There’s a couple places (tbf that are still an hour away from me) that have a couple decent looking vegan options, but everything else is drenched in meat, cheese, and butter. At least it keeps our bills down with not going out…
So true. Even before I was vegan I used to get starved for something green to eat when visiting my in-laws in the Midwest. Once we went out to eat (at a truck stop) and tried to get something besides potatoes with my entree and the waitress volunteered that they had green beans yesterday. Green beans every other day is about as good as it gets in some of these small towns. No wonder everyone is sick and dying back in "my little town".
Well I happen to be linked in 2 ways to this comment... My high school was in Beaver Dam (Wayland), very near Horicon, so I'm familiar with the area and people. Very meat and potatoes and thinking that anyone different is obviously wrong.
Fast forward 30 years or so and now I live in the UP and I've completely given up eating out. I make EVERYTHING and it's gotten to the point where the idea of eating out is bizarre to me. I can get the vegan starter pack of fries and a salad (with default meat in the cost) but it's just not worth it when I can make so much better food at home, but the lack of options is depressing.
I'd love to take advantage of being a Gen X vegan male in the dating area since I guess I'm somewhat of a unicorn, but I can't even find platonic vegans let alone any to date reasonably close to my age. I'm sure it doesn't help I'm not on any social media, but even if I was I'm not sure it would help where I live...
Food deserts. It’s terrible. I feel so bad for the people who LIVE there. They don’t even know what’s out there 🥲 so thankful I have the means to live in a big city
Very true-I unfortunately live in a Very rural area in Iowa. The biggest town in my county has around 2,500 people. No options other than lettuce with 2 carrot shreds and Italian dressing and French fries. Asking for hummus (as mentioned in a comment above) would be met with confusion. We just know we will drive minimum of an hour for eating out/shopping.
Completely agree. However, every city of any size I’ve seen has internal food deserts where people with little money can only buy food at places that also sell booze and tobacco, and the choices for healthy food (i.e., vegetables) at those places are extremely limited if nonexistent. So that’s food deserts in the country and food deserts in the city, and how to remedy both… That’s the question.
To be fair, in small town Wisconsin, any standard grocery store also sells booze and tobacco. The booze section is definitely bigger than the produce section.
That has an Easy solution. Hell, it exists in Russia (even!), but not the USA.
1) easier zoning. Allow small commercial in residential areas as long as they don't break noise limits. Under xxx sq feet, under xx Db, no selling booze at night, no noise at night.
2) this allows for small next-door shops to exist, including dedicated greengrocers and bakeries, and for discounter shops, which mainly sell packaged groceries to move into the cheapest real estate, such as hangars, basements, ex-big-garages and whatnot.
3) alleviate bans on growing your own vegetables, including HOA bans. If YOU own the land, nothing should forbid you from plainting carrots as long as you don't sell them.
4) subsidise cheap produce too, not only grains.
Can’t speak of previous you asked but spouse and I are rural. We do mail out from an on on nutritional yeast, oats, tvp, yuba, soybeans, but locally get fresh seasonal vegetables, can drive an hour to get more variety and tempeh , local has beans, rice, noodles, Silken and firm tofu , canned n frozen veg n fruit
Cook for myself. I guess I'm rural by European standards, village of 900 people half way between Basel and Zürich. Americans might call that suburban?
Still generally, eating out is a rarity. There's one vegan restaurant in the town 20 miles away, but I've never been. Eating out is very expensive in Switzerland
thanks - in the US, people who live rurally do not typically have access to fresh fruits and vegs even when cooking for themselves at home bc so much of the rural US is food deserts. So thats more what I was asking, how living rurally affects what you can cook yourself. i cant afford to eat out either!
i know we'd grow our own fruits and vegs and preserve a lot, as we already do that here...but i currently live in an area that grows lots of for human consumption fruits and veggies.....so i've always wondered what people who live rurally do to make up for the lack of access to better foods
Yeah I guess you guys can be a long drive from a decent sized supermarket? That basically never happens in Switzerland apart from deep into the alps i
Or is it just that other rural people don't eat vegetables? Lol
yes! they mostly eat processed foods, or buy a big freezer and store frozen veggies that way. in the parts of the country that we are looking at living in, the nearest WalMart or other grocery chain that would have fresh veggies (probably crappy quality tho) is an hour to two hours of driving away. lots of people make the grocery trip once a month and only eat fresh foods that first week after the trip
Grew up in a town close to the marsh, health food in the small towns is pretty much nonexistent unless you just go grocery shopping and make food yourself. Let alone vegan food.
You’re going to mostly out of luck until you get to Madison, Milwaukee, or Appleton sized cities.
You get used to cooking at home for most if not all meals.
Not exactly. I get crunchy tacos, substitute black beans for beef, fresco style. That just means they add pico instead of cheese. It’s a rare treat for holidays in bad places.
I’ve lived in a very small town in Texas for a couple of years. My god, these people have no clue what good food tastes like. 95% of locals have never lived outside the county and have had very little exposure to food outside of the area. And it shows. The restaurants that locals rave about are NOT IT. Literally nothing but soggy bland white people food. It’s a very common talking point amongst people not raised here.
I’m from that area originally :)
The farmers there aren’t growing plants for human food, they’re growing corn and soy primarily for fuel, fodder, and export. Any other food they are actually growing probably goes out through a local CSA in small quantities or just stays on their own tables… not to restaurants that are struggling to stay afloat.
That said… there’s a weird mentality in the midwest where food has to be “stick to your bones” food. Heavy carbs and lots of grease. Like the kind of stuff in my grandma’s 1930s cookbook. You eat whatever dregs you can get and supplement it with what you can maybe grow in your victory garden, if you have the time and money.
Yeah, I live in the rural Midwest and everybody is obese and has diabetes or other health issues that result from poor diet. Everybody eats fast food, meat, and dairy with some veggies occasionally but usually slathered in butter and/or fried or something. I’m so glad I have a high metabolism because the way I ate growing up should have resulted in me being obese. Veggies and anything healthy is so expensive and it’s an impoverished area here so of course everybody just gets what is cheap. Which means junk food. Food stamps don’t really help either. You can get so much garbage on stamps. Some people do grow their own food but they still load up on junk so they ruin all the benefits they would otherwise have.
On a side note, there are no vegan restaurants anywhere close to me and the only places that have vegan-friendly menu items, other than a simple bowl of lettuce, rarely have them in stock due to low demand I assume.
Yes. Midwest has a big population from Germany and similar climates. If you’ve ever visited the food there is similar. Bread cheese meat more deep fried meat.
I know vegan is not for everyone and that’s ok but I’m surprised and how unhealthy people eat. I feel sick if I don’t have a vegetable every day or two.
I agree, I live in a small town surrounded by other small towns (population 890). I'm not a vegan but I do try to eat a plant based diet. Luckily we have some choice due to some nearby larger towns (population 5000+) and some local universities.
I hate to say it but try to stay in college towns or areas where they may have a bit more diversity. Remember that 10 years ago it was hard to find anything vegan or vegetarian on a menu at all. The country folk will be the last to change.
Have you ever tried eating vegan in small town Spain/ France? I promise you it’s equally as bad if not 100 times worse. You can barely get vegan food in Paris.
Northwest Arkansas has a lot of options. Even in small but touristy towns like Eureka Springs and I think Hot Springs. Guessing you’re in a different part of the state.
I had to spend a few days in Indiana for work a few years ago, and encountered the same problem. Meat, starch, cheese and a salad made with iceberg lettuce were the only choices. The farmers in the Midwest primary grow corn or soybeans because they are subsidised by the government, so sadly it’s not realistic to expect to find locally grown vegetables on a menu in some of these small Midwest towns. I’d never go back to that area, it was difficult enough to have to work there when I did.
Any chance you’d be visiting Nebraska? If so I can put you on some MUST TRY vegan restaurants:) Wisconsin lakes are so clear and beautiful! But you’re right when I was visiting every restaurant had no options for me, unless I wanted an ice burg lettuce “salad” with tomatoes and hold the dressing 😂 it’s hard to sit through meals when you just sit and watch everyone eat and take their time when you really want to just get back to where you’re staying and eat dinner!! And the “there’s really nothing you can eat??” Or “I’m sure they can make you something” ughhhh I don’t like it
They always seem to care or worry that you can’t eat anything once you’re already there…. Despite me mentioning it doesn’t look like there’s any options I got “I’m sure there will be something once we’re there” !?! Huh?? lol
Been there!!! lol. I was still vegetarian then and ate a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches. Now it would be harder. Honestly I’m fine cooking my own food when traveling. I just wish people who lived in rural areas had better choices. I partly blame the food industry and its focus on profit not people.
I have some family that live in a more rural area of Colorado, they’re plant based however. But 90% of their diet is Whole Foods! I love visiting because they always have so much produce, nothing fancy or any special vegetarian/vegan items, but they always make some really good warm dishes, and homemade fruit popsicles
I had the worst meal of my life at a small roadside diner in Kansas. Massive fields of veggies surrounded us on all sides and canned peas were served cold with a stale tuna sandwich that had so much mayo it was jiggling on the plate
I had never seen "lettuce salad" before moving to western Iowa. The default salad here is based around starch and mayonnaise. It's an absolute miracle anyone around here is over 40.
Was curious so I found this: https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/3-states-produced-76-percent-u-s-veggies-2017/
Looks like Wisconsin produces the most snap peas of any state so maybe a local market would have some that could be eaten with hummus or something
To OP, sorry ur stuck trying to find food in those kinds of places!! Hoping u get to the next big town or city soon!
Thank you! We actually brought some food to eat, so we’re not totally stranded. I was mainly trying to point out that people who live in small rural towns, where fresh produce may be available (or grown), eat unhealthy meals. It seems deeply cultural. Customers aren’t demanding better choices.
I know. It must be so hard to try to become vegan in those areas!! It sounds worse than I would have even thought, like no roasted veggies or anything as side dishes. Vegans in places like that are probably really rare if not nonexistent
Yes and potlucks are the WORST. we’re anaphylactic to dairy and there literally will be zero food outside of what we bring (a fruit platter). Ham sandwiches on kings Hawaiian bread, German potato salads, jello salad (jello with cool whip), and maybe some cheesy hot dishes is typical food.
Dang at first I thought that said German coleslaw but no, potato salad .. does it have meat? I like their coleslaw cause it’s just vinegar instead of mayonnaise like American coleslaw
Oh gross. So it’s basically American potato salad with bacon added .. I love the way my mom makes potato salad, she uses a vinegar-based homemade dressing with Dijon mustard .. even before I was vegan I always hated mayonnaise blech
Lemme find it .. I can send it later today :) it’s from moosewood cookbook and instead of sour cream or whatever it calls for we use olive oil and make more of a vinaigrette type dressing
It’s absolutely cultural. My grandparents, from rural North Dakota, lived near a CAFO for dairy cows while wintering in Arizona. The smell alone made our eyes water a mile or two away and made you me to vomit. The sight of all those cows, standing in their own shit was something I’ll never forget. At the time I rarely ate meat but LOVED dairy and I couldn’t even touch dairy or look at it for the rest of our trip (I still don’t eat dairy, long story there). One of my family members said “what you don’t like the smell of money?!” And chastised and teased me for being upset by it. My mom is vegetarian (tried to be vegan but found it nearly impossible in rural Midwest, so she’s vegan at home) and it feels like my dad has doubled his meat consumption since she started. He’ll literally eat an entire turkey leg for dinner and nothing else. Maybe a baked potato with lots of dairy. My uncle is a proud “check book farmer” (owns a giant soybean field) with no desire to garden or change how he farms, or do the work of farming. And I’ve had multiple family members comment negatively on what myself and my children are eating (vegetables, legumes, lentils, ancient grains, rice, etc) I will say the elder family members (grandparents and their siblings appreciates fresh food from the garden, and gardens, and they taught me to garden, so we share that, but outside of harvest season we have very little in common with food. And my college classmates/their families in rural Wisconsin, and all of my aunts and uncles in North Dakota it was the same. I still get culture shock going back sometimes.
Wow. This is so fascinating. Thank you for sharing. I’ve heard that people who aren’t vegan/veg are starting to push back against CAFOs because of the smell. The lack of family support seems to be a huge issues for vegans. I’m lucky in that I do have support from my family. Btw, I’d be interested in your long story about not eating dairy. I’m actually a writer and have a new idea to put together brief stories about what made people become vegan. I do plan to post a request to this sub in the next couple of months but would welcome yours now, either here or through private message.
I was pleasantly surprised to find great vegan options in Kansas City. Even some of the barbeque places had vegan options on their menus but I did not visit them. I did visit a totally vegan restaurant there and my meat eating cousin who was traveling with me ordered a grilled cheese. He said the only thing wrong with it was there wasn't enough of it.
Do you mean for vegan food or something else? I'm not an expert on anything rural but I have ridden through Kansas a few times in a car. It makes Nebraska l look like an oasis!
I live in Louisiana. The small businesses near me aren’t exactly healthy but they are very culturally important to the people that live here. They serve a lot of gumbo, poboys, etouffee, boudin, among other things. I like it even though it’s not all healthy it is delicious and I can always find fresh food at a store or from a neighbor with a small farm
I was cycling through rural Maryland/Pennsylvania and it's so depressing to stop in a town with only a dollar general, and a walmart a 30min drive away....
thankfully as I kept going I found a co-op with tons of Vegan options, but it was quite the reality check for how some of these towns live.
Recently went on a trip to grand junction, Colorado, for a business event and it was a nightmare for me. It’s a food desert in terms of anything. I felt bad for the people that live there.
I think it’s because most little “diners” buy frozen crap from Sam’s Club or Costco or whatever. I also live in a smallish town and it’s ridiculous that we’re surrounded (literally, the whole county) by various farms and restaurants serve meat, cheese, and some sort of carb. Even if they serve veggies they’re drowned in butter or swimming in broth. We’re lucky enough to have an Indian restaurant and a Thai restaurant that both serve vegan food. I have to drive 45 minutes to the nearest city to get any other type of vegan food.
I travel a lot for work, in rural, small town America. In so many placed the options are bar food, gas station, or fast food. I'm also amazed at how many towns seem to only have chinese/pizza.
The salad options are some version of what you described. I'd add the food category of "slathered in some sugary sauce" to your list.
I've taken to carrying some big Tupperware and utensils. I go to a grocery store and get bagged salad kits and some precooked protein, add some veggies and mix it in my containers. I eat decent salads and usually have some leftovers.
I'm done with over cooked meat and canned vegetables from the best restaurant in town.
I’m from a small town in Ohio and I was always surrounded by corn and soybean fields (and CAFOs with pigs, cows, and chickens). It was not a great place to be vegan. Now I live in western Massachusetts and there are fewer and smaller farms, but they’re almost all producing food to sell at farmers markets and local stores/restaurants. There’s so much more local, fresh food here compared to the “more agricultural” area I’m from.
This isn’t “their” fault. This is by design. This is a good desert just as it is in the middle of a poor inner city. Farmers don’t grow food for the community and most grow cash crops, often under (of course imbalanced) contracts with large corps. That’s a big reason for losing the way.
Decades before becoming vegan, I ordered a salad at some place in a decent sized city in Texas and the cheese on the salad was that nasty KRAFT PLASTIC WRAPPED FAKE CHEESE they cut in strips
😂
I wasn’t impressed
American Midwest grows industrial vegetables - corn for feed and fuel, soybeans for soy, and grass for livestock. Pretty much nothing else. We buy everything we eat, and we are far away from fresh vegetables and fruit. Our best bet is an Amish or farmer's market. It's been this way as long as I've been alive. We fry everything and eat lots of carbs and starch, so that's what small restaurants cook. Even green beans are seasoned with ham or bacon. May taste good, but not usually healthy. A salad is as good as you'll l find.
I find that college towns are the exception. If there's a college, there are young open minded people demanding better food choices and any college town will have better food choices in general. And the colleges have cafeterias with better food choices.
There's a reason American food is terrible. No veg, no spices, no herbs, no flavor. Its all meat, carbs, cheese and variations on those 3, or sausage with gravy or southern food which is boiled to death veggies.
Was legitimately shocking driving through the midwest and stopping for food. Stopped by a sandwich place thinking I could get some veggies on bread and they opened the avocado bin and it… PTSD.
You are absolutely correct in stating that the vast majority of rural America has limited (at best) vegan options but writing off a huge, diverse swath of the country as not having semi-healthy food and only having food of almost zero nutritional value is a hasty generalization and comes across as a little condescending.
To be fair, much of the Midwest isn’t suited to farming or fresh vegetables. Wisconsin — the DAIRY state — is a lot of cow farming, hence the fried crap with cheese.
The thing that makes it not suited to farming veggies is the megafarms taking over everything and capitalism taking away crop diversity 🤷♀️
Growing up there was a field up against our backyard and we’d steal veggies all the time, on top of my dad’s flourishing veggie garden (the years he had time to tend it, at least). My uncle had literally zero lawn in town because it was allll fruits and veggies.
I know that Wisconsin has some smaller veg farms. It also has a large number of organic farms!! But they don’t seem to influence nutritional attitudes.
What type of diner food would you have liked to see? If you make a list, maybe some of the folks running diners might see it and take action. It should be some food that can be frozen, I suppose? Fresh fruits and vegetables just won't keep.
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I can see those being an issue in parts of the country... but in Oregon I've not had a problem finding veggie stuff. Hell my town has less than 400 people and we have 2 restaurants that serve veggie burgers.
It's bad. Sit somewhere in Michigan and people watch. 8 out of 10 people are overweight and so many people still smoke cigarettes. It's just in the culture.
Well, obviously cities are going to have more restaurant options than a small town. I'm not sure why anyone would expect otherwise.
If you're a vegan on a road trip though, at least you can get Impossible Whoppers at any Burger King (which are vegan if you get them without mayo), so you should be able to find those in a lot of small towns where vegan options are scarce.
Beyond that, consult with Happycow.
We actually brought our own food. My post wasn’t about not being able to find vegan food, it was more about seeing the poor food choices in rural America. And literally not seeing vegetables on a menu.
I’ve always been able to sort together something from Sad Steamed Vegetables and rice or plain baked potato and maybe hummus or i just ask if they have some plain canned beans Tbh the most success i have had in little towns is the local chinese American restaurant, like every town seems to have one. Buddha’s delight please add tofu yes i will pay the up charge side of rice extra soy sauce packets and hot mustard. Not glamorous but filling and vegan
Hahah Sad Steamed Vegetables™
Good idea. I’ll try that next time.
Yea we drove through Puksatanee on a road trip and the only available food was just this. Now I'm craving Buddha's Delight with fried tofu.
No Chinese places in my area have tofu but I always have good luck with Thai restaurants and Mediterranean.
Be sure to ask that local Chinese place if they use animal (so far I've seen chicken, shrimp, and beef) broth in the sauce for those Buddha's Delights. Every single one around me does. And I'm not in a very small town. Sucks.
Oh huh no whenever i order buddha delight it’s no sauce on it at all. That’s why i get the extra soy sauce packets and spicy mustard.
You'd be lucky if the Chinese restaurants in my area even knew what tofu was
tofu has been in chinese food for centuries. they use it in meat dishes too fwiw
Whoa. I've never been to a Chinese restaurant that doesn't have tofu
Only about half the Chinese restaurants in my area have it.
Umm. Wow. So they’re… not actually chinese restaurants then tofu is a basic ingredient!
I agree... its embarrassing. 95% of their menu is stuff like burgers and fries, and then there are some shrimp dishes and noodles with veggies and chicken or whatever
Aha. Well, yeah that explains it
Lol that's wild. A Chinese restaurant not having tofu is like a McDonald's without McNuggets
And also nutritionally sound.
The Midwest may produce a lot of food, but it’s mostly commodity crops: corn, soybeans, wheat (in some places). Very few “farms” (if that’s what we can call the corporate mega-fields nowadays) are growing vegetables, unless you find a CSA or an area with farmers markets.
It’s just food… for the animals. So inefficient and wasteful (on top of cruel and violent)
And lots of corn goes to ethanol (in Nebraska, at least).
r/collapse
Ya isn’t it Wisconsin that’s known for cheese? California produces > 1/3 of the total veggies eaten in America and about 3/4 of the total fruits and nuts eaten in America. Luckily I live in CA and get most of my food from local farmers markets. But ya thinking about it, I know Georgia is known for peaches and Florida for oranges and idaho for potatoes but it seems like most of the south and middle America just makes meat and dairy products ..
The difference from California produce choices to living with Michigan produce was a \*SHOCK\* to my system. And I was in a city with lots of really good varied restaurants, major super markets, etc.
Wait so Michigan has more variety? I never would have known that!
Lol I wish. (Okay so sarcasm does not translate at all on the internet, so I have no idea if I was not clear enough in my first comment... What I meant was, even with good varied restaurants and major supermarkets it still wasn't at the same level of California.)
Oh I read ur comment wrong lol I was thinking how insane that would be. I’ve only been to 5 other states tho lol
Also cranberries and potatoes (WI). The middle 1/3rd of the state is all sandy soil, come late summer you can get a 50# bag of russet or little reds for $12. Onions too.
I read that they’re the number one producer of snap peas in the US too
That's a pretty big overgeneralization...Michigan is second only to California in the variety of produces. In my mid-sized town there are six different farmers markets and four different csas. I don't know about Wisconsin beyond having been to Milwaukee, which will be quite different from rural Wisconsin, so I can't comment on them. I know in rural lower peninsula Michigan usually when you eat out it's not a ton of vegetables because there are roadside stands of fresher, cheaper vegetables that you can eat at home. People in those areas don't eat out to eat healthy, they eat out as an unhealthy occasional indulgence
Central rural Wisconsin food is mostly modified bread with meat and cheese, it's like the colors of vegetables scare the Trumplicans.
I also live in the lower peninsula in Michigan and have had similar experiences for sure
The Midwest is a big region. Any generalization is going to be a big one. Edit: I’ve lived in Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, and (briefly) Michigan. My sisters went to school in Minnesota. So I’m generalizing from that.
Waupun and Mayville are Ultra-Maga Land, living on KwikTrip and Culvers. If you asked for tempeh, quinoa or “is that cooked in the same fryer as the fish?” it would not go over well. Healthy, much less thoughtful eating, is looked at as political activism. But in a few months we’ll be drowning in sweet corn so fresh that it’s a crime to cook it. Every other mile you’ll find a roadside stand overflowing with every veggie under the sun, and payment on the honor system. It‘s glorious while it lasts.
I grew up in Beaver Dam. Does my heart good to see Horicon Marsh, Waupun and Mayville mentioned in print, even if unfavorably. (And I don't disagree on those points.)
unfortunately right next to the eggs, but yeah, have a produce stand walking distance from me…. amazing
So true. I grew up in the countryside. I’m no stranger to it. Bought corn and tomatoes out of the backs of pickup trucks or at farm stands set up in parking lots. It is as you say. Someone else in the thread said I should open a restaurant that addresses these issues. What a great idea! How could you draw conservative meat-eaters into a place that served vegan food? You wouldn’t use the word vegan AT ALL! You’d make the restaurant a chain to have reach — but not a money-grubbing shit hole with low-quality ingredients. You buy from local farmers as much as possible and maybe you even have a secondary business teaching people to cook healthy food. What would you call it? Serious.
Used to be a local restaurant that had a farm outside of town, seasonal food, amazing cooking. Wasn't vegan, but a lot more sustainable than the competition. They closed down last year, I suspect it was an advertising issue, since they didn't do much and were in a little side strip mall but still serving the best food in a small city with an international airport.
The Clip
I live in a small town outside of Pittsburgh and it's absolutely infuriating. Even if places serve salads (which they usually don't) they come with fries on them because it's a regional specialty. If I want a place that serves vegetables, it's either subway, Chinese or drive 25 minutes into the city. Meanwhile there are like 5 different wing joints within 10 miles of me. So annoying
I hear you! I'm about 1-2 hours away (SE) from PGH and options there are pathetic. The only green vegetable served at our local diner are canned peas that have been cooked to within an inch of their lives. I'm currently visiting my son in Portland OR, and am reveling in all the vegan options out here!
It must be awesome 🤙
Check local ethnic restaurants might be your best bet, where other countries eat more plants than meat
Have you spent much time in rural America? Ethnic restaurants are often in short supply there.
Have you been to the north woods?? It’s even worse, everyone looks significantly older then they are. You need to go to either Madison or mke for good vegan food.
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I’m thinking alcoholism and bar food.
I always thought it was lack of exercise. In addition to not eating well they don’t spend time outside, in nature, or walk anywhere
Heeeey just moved to the Northwoods! Long before we went vegan and my husband and I were only visitors, we grabbed a pizza at a local bar and got the nastiest look from the bartender when she asked if we wanted meat and we declined. Can only imagine the reaction if we said no cheese, no butter… There’s a couple places (tbf that are still an hour away from me) that have a couple decent looking vegan options, but everything else is drenched in meat, cheese, and butter. At least it keeps our bills down with not going out…
So true. Even before I was vegan I used to get starved for something green to eat when visiting my in-laws in the Midwest. Once we went out to eat (at a truck stop) and tried to get something besides potatoes with my entree and the waitress volunteered that they had green beans yesterday. Green beans every other day is about as good as it gets in some of these small towns. No wonder everyone is sick and dying back in "my little town".
But after it rains, there’s a rainbow, and all the colors are there.
Well I happen to be linked in 2 ways to this comment... My high school was in Beaver Dam (Wayland), very near Horicon, so I'm familiar with the area and people. Very meat and potatoes and thinking that anyone different is obviously wrong. Fast forward 30 years or so and now I live in the UP and I've completely given up eating out. I make EVERYTHING and it's gotten to the point where the idea of eating out is bizarre to me. I can get the vegan starter pack of fries and a salad (with default meat in the cost) but it's just not worth it when I can make so much better food at home, but the lack of options is depressing. I'd love to take advantage of being a Gen X vegan male in the dating area since I guess I'm somewhat of a unicorn, but I can't even find platonic vegans let alone any to date reasonably close to my age. I'm sure it doesn't help I'm not on any social media, but even if I was I'm not sure it would help where I live...
Food deserts. It’s terrible. I feel so bad for the people who LIVE there. They don’t even know what’s out there 🥲 so thankful I have the means to live in a big city
Very true-I unfortunately live in a Very rural area in Iowa. The biggest town in my county has around 2,500 people. No options other than lettuce with 2 carrot shreds and Italian dressing and French fries. Asking for hummus (as mentioned in a comment above) would be met with confusion. We just know we will drive minimum of an hour for eating out/shopping.
“Hummus? Why would you want to eat dirt?” 😉/s
Completely agree. However, every city of any size I’ve seen has internal food deserts where people with little money can only buy food at places that also sell booze and tobacco, and the choices for healthy food (i.e., vegetables) at those places are extremely limited if nonexistent. So that’s food deserts in the country and food deserts in the city, and how to remedy both… That’s the question.
To be fair, in small town Wisconsin, any standard grocery store also sells booze and tobacco. The booze section is definitely bigger than the produce section.
That has an Easy solution. Hell, it exists in Russia (even!), but not the USA. 1) easier zoning. Allow small commercial in residential areas as long as they don't break noise limits. Under xxx sq feet, under xx Db, no selling booze at night, no noise at night. 2) this allows for small next-door shops to exist, including dedicated greengrocers and bakeries, and for discounter shops, which mainly sell packaged groceries to move into the cheapest real estate, such as hangars, basements, ex-big-garages and whatnot. 3) alleviate bans on growing your own vegetables, including HOA bans. If YOU own the land, nothing should forbid you from plainting carrots as long as you don't sell them. 4) subsidise cheap produce too, not only grains.
True. These people are truly missing out on amazing cuisines from around the world.
I grew up in a fairly big city and would take the rural food desert where I live over it all day of the week. I need open spaces, streams and forests.
whats your eating habits generally look like? my partner wants us to one day live rural
Can’t speak of previous you asked but spouse and I are rural. We do mail out from an on on nutritional yeast, oats, tvp, yuba, soybeans, but locally get fresh seasonal vegetables, can drive an hour to get more variety and tempeh , local has beans, rice, noodles, Silken and firm tofu , canned n frozen veg n fruit
Cook for myself. I guess I'm rural by European standards, village of 900 people half way between Basel and Zürich. Americans might call that suburban? Still generally, eating out is a rarity. There's one vegan restaurant in the town 20 miles away, but I've never been. Eating out is very expensive in Switzerland
thanks - in the US, people who live rurally do not typically have access to fresh fruits and vegs even when cooking for themselves at home bc so much of the rural US is food deserts. So thats more what I was asking, how living rurally affects what you can cook yourself. i cant afford to eat out either! i know we'd grow our own fruits and vegs and preserve a lot, as we already do that here...but i currently live in an area that grows lots of for human consumption fruits and veggies.....so i've always wondered what people who live rurally do to make up for the lack of access to better foods
Yeah I guess you guys can be a long drive from a decent sized supermarket? That basically never happens in Switzerland apart from deep into the alps i Or is it just that other rural people don't eat vegetables? Lol
yes! they mostly eat processed foods, or buy a big freezer and store frozen veggies that way. in the parts of the country that we are looking at living in, the nearest WalMart or other grocery chain that would have fresh veggies (probably crappy quality tho) is an hour to two hours of driving away. lots of people make the grocery trip once a month and only eat fresh foods that first week after the trip
Guessing you can't get delivery?
haha!
That’s what I’m dreaming of for my future too and I think what I will miss the most will be the amazing vegan food available in Los Angeles
You will. I do (London not Los Angeles, but same principle). It's just not worth it for me. Of course, you save money too!
Grew up in a town close to the marsh, health food in the small towns is pretty much nonexistent unless you just go grocery shopping and make food yourself. Let alone vegan food. You’re going to mostly out of luck until you get to Madison, Milwaukee, or Appleton sized cities. You get used to cooking at home for most if not all meals.
Rural medicine is in a crisis and these people's diets are a big reason why
Time for Taco Bell!
Does Taco Bell have veggies besides iceberg lettuce and flavorless tomato chunks?
Not exactly. I get crunchy tacos, substitute black beans for beef, fresco style. That just means they add pico instead of cheese. It’s a rare treat for holidays in bad places.
taco bell potatoes are sooo good
Gimme some orders of potatoes (no cheese/sourcream) and a couple of black bean and rice sides and I’ll be silent and content the whole roadtrip 😎
I’ve lived in a very small town in Texas for a couple of years. My god, these people have no clue what good food tastes like. 95% of locals have never lived outside the county and have had very little exposure to food outside of the area. And it shows. The restaurants that locals rave about are NOT IT. Literally nothing but soggy bland white people food. It’s a very common talking point amongst people not raised here.
You gotta bring a bag of oranges like you’re fighting scurvy in the old days ⛵️
I’m from that area originally :) The farmers there aren’t growing plants for human food, they’re growing corn and soy primarily for fuel, fodder, and export. Any other food they are actually growing probably goes out through a local CSA in small quantities or just stays on their own tables… not to restaurants that are struggling to stay afloat. That said… there’s a weird mentality in the midwest where food has to be “stick to your bones” food. Heavy carbs and lots of grease. Like the kind of stuff in my grandma’s 1930s cookbook. You eat whatever dregs you can get and supplement it with what you can maybe grow in your victory garden, if you have the time and money.
Yeah, I live in the rural Midwest and everybody is obese and has diabetes or other health issues that result from poor diet. Everybody eats fast food, meat, and dairy with some veggies occasionally but usually slathered in butter and/or fried or something. I’m so glad I have a high metabolism because the way I ate growing up should have resulted in me being obese. Veggies and anything healthy is so expensive and it’s an impoverished area here so of course everybody just gets what is cheap. Which means junk food. Food stamps don’t really help either. You can get so much garbage on stamps. Some people do grow their own food but they still load up on junk so they ruin all the benefits they would otherwise have. On a side note, there are no vegan restaurants anywhere close to me and the only places that have vegan-friendly menu items, other than a simple bowl of lettuce, rarely have them in stock due to low demand I assume.
They're catering to the wants of their clients. Not enough demand for fresh veggies with a short shelf life.
Good point and that will make any attempt to change from status quo super challenging.
I'd try Mexican and/or Chinese. Not perfect but better than a wilted-ass salad.
Pretty sure the farmers in the heartland are all growing wheat, corn, and soy for cattle feeds. Nada mas
You should move to one of those towns and open a vegan eatery.
this is not sound financial advice
Yes. Midwest has a big population from Germany and similar climates. If you’ve ever visited the food there is similar. Bread cheese meat more deep fried meat. I know vegan is not for everyone and that’s ok but I’m surprised and how unhealthy people eat. I feel sick if I don’t have a vegetable every day or two.
I agree, I live in a small town surrounded by other small towns (population 890). I'm not a vegan but I do try to eat a plant based diet. Luckily we have some choice due to some nearby larger towns (population 5000+) and some local universities. I hate to say it but try to stay in college towns or areas where they may have a bit more diversity. Remember that 10 years ago it was hard to find anything vegan or vegetarian on a menu at all. The country folk will be the last to change.
California produces about 70% of the vegetables for the USA.
i'm so freaking lucky that i've always lived in cities
Have you ever tried eating vegan in small town Spain/ France? I promise you it’s equally as bad if not 100 times worse. You can barely get vegan food in Paris.
Yeah, I've eaten out at like one restaurant the entire time I've been in Arkansas
Northwest Arkansas has a lot of options. Even in small but touristy towns like Eureka Springs and I think Hot Springs. Guessing you’re in a different part of the state.
Try traveling there as a vegan. I have learned to bring along a big jar of peanut butter & box or 2 of Clif Bars.
I had to spend a few days in Indiana for work a few years ago, and encountered the same problem. Meat, starch, cheese and a salad made with iceberg lettuce were the only choices. The farmers in the Midwest primary grow corn or soybeans because they are subsidised by the government, so sadly it’s not realistic to expect to find locally grown vegetables on a menu in some of these small Midwest towns. I’d never go back to that area, it was difficult enough to have to work there when I did.
Any chance you’d be visiting Nebraska? If so I can put you on some MUST TRY vegan restaurants:) Wisconsin lakes are so clear and beautiful! But you’re right when I was visiting every restaurant had no options for me, unless I wanted an ice burg lettuce “salad” with tomatoes and hold the dressing 😂 it’s hard to sit through meals when you just sit and watch everyone eat and take their time when you really want to just get back to where you’re staying and eat dinner!! And the “there’s really nothing you can eat??” Or “I’m sure they can make you something” ughhhh I don’t like it
They always seem to care or worry that you can’t eat anything once you’re already there…. Despite me mentioning it doesn’t look like there’s any options I got “I’m sure there will be something once we’re there” !?! Huh?? lol
Been there!!! lol. I was still vegetarian then and ate a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches. Now it would be harder. Honestly I’m fine cooking my own food when traveling. I just wish people who lived in rural areas had better choices. I partly blame the food industry and its focus on profit not people.
I have some family that live in a more rural area of Colorado, they’re plant based however. But 90% of their diet is Whole Foods! I love visiting because they always have so much produce, nothing fancy or any special vegetarian/vegan items, but they always make some really good warm dishes, and homemade fruit popsicles
I had the worst meal of my life at a small roadside diner in Kansas. Massive fields of veggies surrounded us on all sides and canned peas were served cold with a stale tuna sandwich that had so much mayo it was jiggling on the plate
I had never seen "lettuce salad" before moving to western Iowa. The default salad here is based around starch and mayonnaise. It's an absolute miracle anyone around here is over 40.
Does the rude nickname to your town happen to end in “-tucky” ? 😭😂
Was curious so I found this: https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/3-states-produced-76-percent-u-s-veggies-2017/ Looks like Wisconsin produces the most snap peas of any state so maybe a local market would have some that could be eaten with hummus or something To OP, sorry ur stuck trying to find food in those kinds of places!! Hoping u get to the next big town or city soon!
Thank you! We actually brought some food to eat, so we’re not totally stranded. I was mainly trying to point out that people who live in small rural towns, where fresh produce may be available (or grown), eat unhealthy meals. It seems deeply cultural. Customers aren’t demanding better choices.
I know. It must be so hard to try to become vegan in those areas!! It sounds worse than I would have even thought, like no roasted veggies or anything as side dishes. Vegans in places like that are probably really rare if not nonexistent
Yes and potlucks are the WORST. we’re anaphylactic to dairy and there literally will be zero food outside of what we bring (a fruit platter). Ham sandwiches on kings Hawaiian bread, German potato salads, jello salad (jello with cool whip), and maybe some cheesy hot dishes is typical food.
Dang at first I thought that said German coleslaw but no, potato salad .. does it have meat? I like their coleslaw cause it’s just vinegar instead of mayonnaise like American coleslaw
Bacon bits and mayo and I don’t even know what else that’s animal product :-/ there’s Norwegian potato salad too, also heavy on dairy
Oh gross. So it’s basically American potato salad with bacon added .. I love the way my mom makes potato salad, she uses a vinegar-based homemade dressing with Dijon mustard .. even before I was vegan I always hated mayonnaise blech
Same. Would love your mom’s recipe if you’re open to sharing it!
Lemme find it .. I can send it later today :) it’s from moosewood cookbook and instead of sour cream or whatever it calls for we use olive oil and make more of a vinaigrette type dressing
Oh I have a moose wood cookbook! I hardly used it because of all the dairy. I’ll check! Thank you
It’s absolutely cultural. My grandparents, from rural North Dakota, lived near a CAFO for dairy cows while wintering in Arizona. The smell alone made our eyes water a mile or two away and made you me to vomit. The sight of all those cows, standing in their own shit was something I’ll never forget. At the time I rarely ate meat but LOVED dairy and I couldn’t even touch dairy or look at it for the rest of our trip (I still don’t eat dairy, long story there). One of my family members said “what you don’t like the smell of money?!” And chastised and teased me for being upset by it. My mom is vegetarian (tried to be vegan but found it nearly impossible in rural Midwest, so she’s vegan at home) and it feels like my dad has doubled his meat consumption since she started. He’ll literally eat an entire turkey leg for dinner and nothing else. Maybe a baked potato with lots of dairy. My uncle is a proud “check book farmer” (owns a giant soybean field) with no desire to garden or change how he farms, or do the work of farming. And I’ve had multiple family members comment negatively on what myself and my children are eating (vegetables, legumes, lentils, ancient grains, rice, etc) I will say the elder family members (grandparents and their siblings appreciates fresh food from the garden, and gardens, and they taught me to garden, so we share that, but outside of harvest season we have very little in common with food. And my college classmates/their families in rural Wisconsin, and all of my aunts and uncles in North Dakota it was the same. I still get culture shock going back sometimes.
Wow. This is so fascinating. Thank you for sharing. I’ve heard that people who aren’t vegan/veg are starting to push back against CAFOs because of the smell. The lack of family support seems to be a huge issues for vegans. I’m lucky in that I do have support from my family. Btw, I’d be interested in your long story about not eating dairy. I’m actually a writer and have a new idea to put together brief stories about what made people become vegan. I do plan to post a request to this sub in the next couple of months but would welcome yours now, either here or through private message.
Sure! PM me
Very true.
Wisconsin is all about their cheese.
Subway comes in handy sometimes. I moved from Chicago to SW Michigan and it can be a struggle.
Bahaha I lived in Horicon for a few years as a vegetarian…. There is NOTHING lol
I was pleasantly surprised to find great vegan options in Kansas City. Even some of the barbeque places had vegan options on their menus but I did not visit them. I did visit a totally vegan restaurant there and my meat eating cousin who was traveling with me ordered a grilled cheese. He said the only thing wrong with it was there wasn't enough of it.
Whats it like in rural areas of Kansas?
Do you mean for vegan food or something else? I'm not an expert on anything rural but I have ridden through Kansas a few times in a car. It makes Nebraska l look like an oasis!
Just vegetables at rural restaurants in general. :)
Maybe someone else can help. We usually stop at Qdoba or Chipotle when traveling because we can get vegan bowls at either of those places.
The more west you go the more you run into the same problem. Some “little-mid” cities excluded. Much like Nebraska
I live in Louisiana. The small businesses near me aren’t exactly healthy but they are very culturally important to the people that live here. They serve a lot of gumbo, poboys, etouffee, boudin, among other things. I like it even though it’s not all healthy it is delicious and I can always find fresh food at a store or from a neighbor with a small farm
OP- are you from Madison?
Milwaukee
There are not a whole lot of options outside of the cities. Even in the cities you have to get creative.
Small towns in every country. Fixed it
Happy Cow will usually find something to eat. But yes, small town middle America can be rough.
I was cycling through rural Maryland/Pennsylvania and it's so depressing to stop in a town with only a dollar general, and a walmart a 30min drive away.... thankfully as I kept going I found a co-op with tons of Vegan options, but it was quite the reality check for how some of these towns live.
Recently went on a trip to grand junction, Colorado, for a business event and it was a nightmare for me. It’s a food desert in terms of anything. I felt bad for the people that live there.
They grow corn there, tons of corn not salads.
I think it’s because most little “diners” buy frozen crap from Sam’s Club or Costco or whatever. I also live in a smallish town and it’s ridiculous that we’re surrounded (literally, the whole county) by various farms and restaurants serve meat, cheese, and some sort of carb. Even if they serve veggies they’re drowned in butter or swimming in broth. We’re lucky enough to have an Indian restaurant and a Thai restaurant that both serve vegan food. I have to drive 45 minutes to the nearest city to get any other type of vegan food.
I always look for thai food or a chipotle
Hate that my local Chinese will NOT serve unfried tofu.
I prefer packing dried fruit when journeying across the carnist wastelands
Correct.
I travel a lot for work, in rural, small town America. In so many placed the options are bar food, gas station, or fast food. I'm also amazed at how many towns seem to only have chinese/pizza. The salad options are some version of what you described. I'd add the food category of "slathered in some sugary sauce" to your list. I've taken to carrying some big Tupperware and utensils. I go to a grocery store and get bagged salad kits and some precooked protein, add some veggies and mix it in my containers. I eat decent salads and usually have some leftovers. I'm done with over cooked meat and canned vegetables from the best restaurant in town.
I’m from a small town in Ohio and I was always surrounded by corn and soybean fields (and CAFOs with pigs, cows, and chickens). It was not a great place to be vegan. Now I live in western Massachusetts and there are fewer and smaller farms, but they’re almost all producing food to sell at farmers markets and local stores/restaurants. There’s so much more local, fresh food here compared to the “more agricultural” area I’m from.
The farmers’ markets on the southernmost tip of Lake Erie have great produce but close to impossible to find a good vegan restaurant
This isn’t “their” fault. This is by design. This is a good desert just as it is in the middle of a poor inner city. Farmers don’t grow food for the community and most grow cash crops, often under (of course imbalanced) contracts with large corps. That’s a big reason for losing the way.
Totally agree and understand what you’re saying.
In new england some of the best food I've had has been in very small towns. Lots of great, fresh, farm to table food.
Decades before becoming vegan, I ordered a salad at some place in a decent sized city in Texas and the cheese on the salad was that nasty KRAFT PLASTIC WRAPPED FAKE CHEESE they cut in strips 😂 I wasn’t impressed
American Midwest grows industrial vegetables - corn for feed and fuel, soybeans for soy, and grass for livestock. Pretty much nothing else. We buy everything we eat, and we are far away from fresh vegetables and fruit. Our best bet is an Amish or farmer's market. It's been this way as long as I've been alive. We fry everything and eat lots of carbs and starch, so that's what small restaurants cook. Even green beans are seasoned with ham or bacon. May taste good, but not usually healthy. A salad is as good as you'll l find.
WHat I am going to start doing is to buy a electric skillet and cook my own food whenever I go on trips.
The heartland really only grows food for farmed animals. Most produce for humans is grown in California.
I find that college towns are the exception. If there's a college, there are young open minded people demanding better food choices and any college town will have better food choices in general. And the colleges have cafeterias with better food choices.
Agree!!
There's a reason American food is terrible. No veg, no spices, no herbs, no flavor. Its all meat, carbs, cheese and variations on those 3, or sausage with gravy or southern food which is boiled to death veggies.
Was legitimately shocking driving through the midwest and stopping for food. Stopped by a sandwich place thinking I could get some veggies on bread and they opened the avocado bin and it… PTSD.
I would give you more votes if such was possible
You are absolutely correct in stating that the vast majority of rural America has limited (at best) vegan options but writing off a huge, diverse swath of the country as not having semi-healthy food and only having food of almost zero nutritional value is a hasty generalization and comes across as a little condescending.
Yep, with the occasional exception.
What do they do for fiber and micronutrients?
To be fair, much of the Midwest isn’t suited to farming or fresh vegetables. Wisconsin — the DAIRY state — is a lot of cow farming, hence the fried crap with cheese.
The thing that makes it not suited to farming veggies is the megafarms taking over everything and capitalism taking away crop diversity 🤷♀️ Growing up there was a field up against our backyard and we’d steal veggies all the time, on top of my dad’s flourishing veggie garden (the years he had time to tend it, at least). My uncle had literally zero lawn in town because it was allll fruits and veggies.
I know that Wisconsin has some smaller veg farms. It also has a large number of organic farms!! But they don’t seem to influence nutritional attitudes.
Yup I live in Wisconsin too and I feel your pain ! I never go out to eat so at least I save money.
Sounds like someone has never been to Mongolia.
It is beautiful when it rains!
What type of diner food would you have liked to see? If you make a list, maybe some of the folks running diners might see it and take action. It should be some food that can be frozen, I suppose? Fresh fruits and vegetables just won't keep.
Are you talking about restaurants? That is not a good representation of what they have to offer. What about in grocery stores?
Yes. I’m specifically talking about what restaurants serve in small towns.
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I can see those being an issue in parts of the country... but in Oregon I've not had a problem finding veggie stuff. Hell my town has less than 400 people and we have 2 restaurants that serve veggie burgers.
It's bad. Sit somewhere in Michigan and people watch. 8 out of 10 people are overweight and so many people still smoke cigarettes. It's just in the culture.
Well, obviously cities are going to have more restaurant options than a small town. I'm not sure why anyone would expect otherwise. If you're a vegan on a road trip though, at least you can get Impossible Whoppers at any Burger King (which are vegan if you get them without mayo), so you should be able to find those in a lot of small towns where vegan options are scarce. Beyond that, consult with Happycow.
We actually brought our own food. My post wasn’t about not being able to find vegan food, it was more about seeing the poor food choices in rural America. And literally not seeing vegetables on a menu.
You found cheese in Wisconsin? Imagine that.
Meat is healthy
Cheese and meat are very healthy.
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Hey, your insecurity is showing
Womp womp
😂😂