What Norway's World Cup Food Shipment Revealed About Americans

Quick note: This week's piece is a bit different from my usual science-backed/ holistic practitioner-related pieces. And I do want to mention right from the get-go that Norway's World Cup team has publicly shared practical reasons for bringing food from home, but reading about it sparked bigger questions for me about trust and our relationship to local food systems. 

When news broke that Norway's World Cup team had shipped hundreds of kilograms of salmon and cheese to the United States, headlines quickly framed it as a sign they didn't trust American food. This claim has been denied by the team's chefs, who say they brought their ingredients for consistency and comfort, two extremely important things for elite athletes.

But I think these headlines reveal something important.

The most interesting part of this story isn't whether Norway distrusts American food. It's that Americans immediately believed they might. 

So what can we learn from the fact that an elite team felt it was important to bring familiar foods halfway around the world?

Some facts: 

The team shipped: 

300 kilograms of Norwegian salmon and trout ("red fish")

100 kilograms of halibut

80 kilograms of brunost (Norwegian brown cheese)

100 kilograms of Jarlsberg cheese

Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/norway-world-cup-team-food/

When I first read headlines, my initial thought as an informed American carnivore was, well, of course! 

Most Atlantic salmon in American grocery stores is imported from Norway. 

And if you really wanted to go down a rabbit hole about Salmon with me real quick… If Norwegians wanted the highest quality salmon the U.S. has to offer (wild-caught Alaskan), this typically ranges from $15 to $35 per pound. So if Norway's team had sourced 661 pounds of wild Alaska salmon instead of shipping fish from home, the fish alone would likely have cost roughly $10,000 23,000, before considering transportation, season, and the fact that these aren't even the same species of fish.

As for the cheese, I think brining 180 kilograms of your favorite cheese when you're leaving your home country for a month or more is totally reasonable. No further comments. 

The media response to a World Cup team bringing chefs and ingredients just proves that WE are the skeptical ones. If our response is “I don't blame them,” then what does that say about our relationship with our own food system? 

Whether it's conversations about food dyes, pesticide use, ultra-processed foods, or ingredient differences between the U.S. and Europe, one thing is clear: many Americans have become increasingly skeptical of the systems that produce their food, and we need to be talking about it!!

I'm not going to unpack the issues with our food system here. Or dive into issues with our fisheries and cheese industry. But I'll just remind you- start to think about what's on your plate. Does it bring you comfort and make you feel connected to home? Do you know where your ingredients came from? 

Buy local, support regenerative farms, boycott the empty calories that are UPF, and start to care where your nourishment comes from.