Those of who live in large cities are spoiled when it comes to making food choices, particularly if the city has many people from another the world living in it. The reason we are spoiled is food from around the world is not far from our doorstep, even though most of us will buy very similar types of food when we go shopping. An interesting statistic was 97% of the purchases at the supermarket are for 3 % of the items offered. When we begin to think about food – it is a very broad subject, but Reay Tannahill in Food In History, Stein & Day, NY, 1973 tried to paint us a picture and allow you to do more information if you desire. Some of the early observations are even if we can get food from around the world, most of us eat according to where we live or the norms of where we live. The food is easily available and relatively inexpensive. When people travel from one part of the world to the next, they bring their food habits with them and will try to obtain them or grow them where they are. It has been done for thousands of years and likely will for more years to come. Even though many over the years  could not tell you the Nutrition Facts, on the label of many foods we purchase today, they knew what foods kept one reasonably healthy. There has been for centuries a divide between what the rich and the poor eat, history is written by those focusing on the rich. The other aspect is you may have heard of the 100 mile diet, for the reasonably wealthy there has not been a 100 mile diet for centuries, remember North America was founded because the mark up on spices (pepper, cinnamon, ginger). In 1621 on 3000 tons of spices bought in the East Indies (Indonesia) for $227,000 by the time it reach Aleppo, Syria  – the buying center at the eastern end of the Mediterranean was now selling for $1,972,000 and still needed to be marked up at retail.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, everyday we must eat in order to stay alive. As many of live in urban areas, there are wonderful choices available to us. If you live close to a mall, the food court has an array of choices as well as in many neighbourhoods there is sufficient demand for restaurants of one country or another. The neighbourhoods are easily accessible for you to try and like the food. From the food you begin the journey to the culture and soon the world is your oyster. To continue to try the foods, it is good to have dividend payments from your investments – whether you reinvest or whether you try something new, it is always good when the income is put into your account. On top of that over time, the stocks will rise in value and you can visit the countries of the food you enjoy and have the best of all worlds.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions