[Caipirabob]

Our food is crap compared to overseas. It’s consistent in every country I visit. Things as basic as milk make our milk taste like flavorless water. I can eat almost anything over seas where here I experience similar gastrointestinal issues. Sometimes significant.

But never overseas. Something is being done to our food supply.

[econjack]

One thing I could differentiate in a blind taste test is European vs American butter. Don’t know why, but there is a world of difference.

[tallyhoe]

The European Union produces close to five billion bushels of wheat each year, while the United States produces about two billion bushels [source: Brester]. Unless you’re a professional baker, you might think that all wheat is the same, but these two regions actually produce vastly different varieties of this crop.

Around 60 percent of U.S. wheat production is of the hard red wheat variety; just 23 percent consists of soft wheat [source: Brester]. In Europe, the principal strains of wheat are generally of the soft variety. So what’s the difference between the two? Part of the difference lies in gluten, a protein blend found in wheat and other grains. Hard wheat has more gluten than soft wheat, and the gluten it contains is stronger than gluten found in soft wheat. This tough gluten is ideal for baking soft, fluffy bread that people are used to consuming in the United States.