While visiting Spain on my Maymester “Food, Culture and the Environment” trip I was able to notice a fair amount of differences between the Spanish and America cultures as well as the agriculture. I will say we only visited small scale and more family-owned farms in Spain and I feel that has to do with many of the differences, but not entirely. Starting with the culture itself, Spanish people dress and act very differently from Americans. They dress modest and never seem to leave the house wearing gym or athletic clothes which is very unlike Americans who pride themselves on athletic wear brands such as “Lulu Lemon” and “Nike”. There was also some culture shock when it came to meals. Breakfast was pretty ‘normal’, but lunches were normally very large and always consisted of a beverage such as wine or sangria. With that, dinner seemed to be a smaller meal and was always eaten past 8PM. We had a hard time finding restaurants that were even open before 8:30PM which was quite difficult to get used too. The waiters also never rushed us when we ate and we often sat at the dinner table for many hours waiting on the check. It was nice not to be rushed during dinner. We were able to sit and enjoy our meals along with conversation about the day. Moving onto the agriculture side of this trip, I noticed many differences. Those being more care towards the product and higher quality standards compared to American industry. The farmers we talked to were so passionate about what they were doing, about their animals, and about their products. At all of the different farms, the priority was safety of the animal and the product being sold to consumers. No product, such as cured meat or cheese, was ever rushed to ensure the flavors would be superior and consumers would be content with the product. The only visit that seemed more similar to American production was the larger scale poultry plant which was producing masses of chicken each day. Either way it seemed as if the animals were treated in more humane matters and products were still kept at much higher standards than those in America.
