Culture: Don’t Waste Your Food – All Parts of the Cow!!?

In many of the lower-income pueblos in Latin America, resources to purchase food can be scarce. Latin America mostly consists of developing or so called third-world countries. Because of their low economic resources, Latin people usually don’t waste any food. In-fact, many will go to extremes to eat a lot of interesting parts of the cow, pig and other animals that most Americans have never even thought of eating.

After living in Latin America for two years and becoming accustomed to their way of life, I was shocked when I returned to the United States and had dinner with my family the first night I returned. It was reverse culture shock for me. I could not believe how much food they wasted. If they couldn’t or didn’t want to eat all of their food, they just left it on their plates and all of it went down the hungry and ever-ready food disposal never to be seen again. It is interesting to me that I used to do the same thing at mealtime before spending two years of my life living among the Latin people. In Latin America, because of economic conditions and lifestyle, they usually eat every piece of their food. (more…)