Oats

Like many other monoculture commodity crops, oats may be grown with chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides but take little human labor. Once harvested, oats are dehulled – the hulls being used for animal feed or for biomass to burn and create power. The oats are then washed with a spray of water and sifted, then steamed. They are rolled flat, crushed, or cut, then roasted and finally packaged. The Dakotas are the two biggest producers of oats in America, followed by Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. These states all have cool and wet summers, making them great for growing oats. Oats can make an excellent cover crop especially over the winter season, helping to prevent runoff and erosion of soils as well as providing a green manure. Oats can also be grown on pastures for animal forage. On average, oats have traveled about 2,421 miles to get to my bowl of oatmeal.

Black Beans

Black beans prefer warm temperatures to grow, so in the US they are typically planted in May and harvested between August-October once the pods start to turn yellow. They are often grown with conventional farming methods, requiring pesticides and fertilizers likely derived from fossil fuels, and are harvested mechanically, also requiring fossil fuels. China, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are the world’s biggest producers, followed by the US. In the US, North Dakota, Michigan, and Nebraska are – surprisingly to me – the top three states. Black beans are a great alternative protein source to meat. Since they are plant based, they also take vastly less energy to produce than meat, making them potentially a more sustainable option, depending on what methods are used to grow the beans and how the meat animals are raised. Black beans are also high in fiber and resistant carbohydrates that take longer to digest, meaning they do not lead to a spike in blood sugar, and contain healthy phytonutrients. Depending on where the beans are sourced from, likely US, Mexico, or South America, they have traveled on average around 4,033 miles.

Here is a video of black beans harvested via combine:

Oranges

Oranges are grown in tropical and sub-tropical climates in a wide range of soils. Commercially, oranges trees are often grown by grafting buds of a mature tree onto seedling rootstocks, creating hybrid clones of cultivars that have good yields and desirable fruit. Oranges are harvested when they are pale orange, and often by mechanical canopy shakers that require fossil fuels, though hand picking is not uncommon. Insecticides may be used to prevent pests or insect vectors that spread plant pathogens. Brazil produces around 30% of the world’s oranges, followed by 10% coming from the United States, and 8% from China. Almost 90% of oranges produced commercially in the US are used to make juice. Like many people employed as fruit-pickers in the US, those who pick oranges often have to work extremely hard to make any money at all and many are undocumented, making it very difficult to advocate for their rights as workers. On average, oranges likely from Brazil have traveled about 4200 miles to reach me.

Here is a link to an article on citrus pickers in Florida:  https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/tag/citrus-workers/