What we put into our bodies is our choice. However, have you ever stopped to think about where the food you buy at the local supermarket comes from? When we think we are eating healthy are we really making the right choices? What about where does the food from the supermarket comes from? How did it get to the supermarket before it made its way into your shopping cart? These are all questions we want to think about when we make food choices. Not only do we want to make right choices but we also want our choices to have a positive outcome on our community.

Supermarkets are usually stocked via grocery suppliers or grocery wholesalers. One of my local chain supermarkets, Shaw’s, has different vendors that they use. Their website does not list the different vendors but it has access to their policies and how they choose their vendors. A Consumers International report from July 2012 says that supermarkets buy from suppliers and then sell to consumers. Supermarkets have both retailer and buyer power which means they have influence on both suppliers and consumers. “The more supermarkets buy, the better terms they get. The better terms they get, the more they sell.” (Nicholson, C. & Young, B., 2012). If I were to purchase all the items for my meal, chicken, lemon, rice, mushrooms, greens, almonds, wheat roll, butter, milk, and apple crisp, from Shaw’s Supermarket I would not know where any of my items were being sourced from. I would not know how long the chicken’s been packaged or the vegetable have been out on the floor for sale or even when or where they were harvested. Some items do have tags that tell you where they are from for example the lemons might have a California sticker on them so the consumer knows where the product is from. The only thing I could be certain of where it came from would be the wheat roll providing I