Is Anything American-Made Anymore?

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I was going to grab one and I looked on the okra label and it says “Product of Vietnam.”  Product of Vietnam?  We can’t even grow okra anymore?  Maybe we can grow it, we just don’t have Americans that will pick it. Maybe it has to be grown in Vietnam because there are Vietnamese people out there picking the okra that Americans won’t pick.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Something else marvelous about this — this was a tournament that benefits the families of children suffering pediatric cancers.  The Ask Foundation raises money to provide cash grants to help make the differences up when families have children that are afflicted with pediatric cancers and have to travel to get treatments, need help paying bills around the house, things that insurance just doesn’t cover.  That’s what the purpose of this was.  It doesn’t do any research or anything.  It’s just direct cash assistance.  This was novel, too.  I really appreciated this and am going to have it mounted at the house.  I didn’t want to risk putting it on the airplane or sticking it in a bag because you know how baggage handlers are.

The trophies — I’ll post it on the Twitter and Facebook later today.  The first place trophy was a 14-inch ceramic plate, and I mean serving plate.  One of the children that has survived a pediatric cancer put colored ceramic, glaze, and impressed a handprint in the middle of the plate.  Then on the back, they signed it with a glazing pen.  I believe our plate is from Mackenzie, nine years old, a cancer survivor.  Rather than getting one of those fake bronze-looking things that’s put together at a trophy shop run by some guy named Oswald, you get a trophy that is actually handmade by the direct benefactors or those who benefit directly from the activities of the charity.  It’s a wonderful way to cap off an even more wonderful day.  Each of us gets a plate.  I’ve seen golf trophies awarded that are silver plates and tennis trophies that are plates.  Can you name one that’s — I’m trying to think, which one do you get the plate?  Is Wimbledon a plate?

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AG:  Wimbledon is a plate, yeah.

Mike:  So plates are kind of traditional when it comes to trophies, but it’s just one of those things that’s become an anachronism.  Why go to the trouble of making a handmade plate when you can just go to Oswald’s Trophy Shop?  Just assemble it there for you from the finest parts made in China.  I stopped at an inconvenience store yesterday to grab a Powerade Zero on the ride home with the misses.  At the checkout line, I noticed that they had a new collection of different kinds of — what is it when you make a craisin?  A craisin, is that — that’s not freeze-dried, it’s dehydrated.  You can now get salted and peppered dehydrated okra stalks or okra buds or whatever.

We grow okra here in Louisiana.  I’ve grown it myself.  It’s very temperamental.  You have to pick it at just the right time or it’s not useful.  Anyway, I’m looking at them like: That’s interesting. I was going to grab one and I looked on the okra label and it says “Product of Vietnam.”  Product of Vietnam?  We can’t even grow okra anymore?  Maybe we can grow it, we just don’t have Americans that will pick it. Maybe it has to be grown in Vietnam because there are Vietnamese people out there picking the okra that Americans won’t pick.  This came up last week.  What was the last subject?  We had the asparagus pickers last year.  What was the story we did the other day about the guy that could not find anyone to pick?  He was an opponent of — we just did the story last week.  It was some vegetable he was growing and he couldn’t find anybody to pick.

AG:  The strawberry LA Times story?

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Mike:  You’re right.  “Strawberry Fields Forever” was the title of the story.  We can’t pick our own strawberries, asparagus, and now add okra to the list.  Is there any vegetable grown in the United States that is actually picked by an American citizen any longer, besides that that’s grown on small family farms?  I’d like to imagine that that stuff is picked by someone in the farmer’s family, although I don’t know that.  I’m assuming that it is.

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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