> Hey HN reader. Get rid of plastic from your life. Doing future you a favor. No. We need to help the working class become system -literate, and then demand sy

> Hey HN reader. Get rid of plastic from your life. Doing future you a favor. No. We need to help the working class become system -literate, and then demand systemic change together. This is not the 'individual choice' problem these call the actions make them out to be. We need to fully map and understand the undemocratic black box systems and their obfuscated rules that we live under. Governments and firms could end plastic packaging/usage today, yet don't because of perverse incentives that send the same foods in the opposite direction which means food has to stay fresh for much longer while traveling much too far. "Many urbanised people have lost touch with the sources of their food, and may not realize that the distance their food travels has been steadily increasing. In the US, the average pound of food now travels 1,500 miles before it reaches the dinner table, and the distance continues to grow. Much of this transport is needless: every day, identical commodities pass in opposite directions, criss-crossing the globe. The ‘logic’ of the global economy leads the US and other nations to import hundreds of thousands of tons of staple foods each year, while simultaneously exporting roughly the same amount. In an era of dwindling fossil fuel reserves and rising CO2 emissions, this is both senseless and wasteful. But it is a trend that is accelerating as governments systematically promote a single, globalized food system." - Helena Norberg Hodge [1] A horrible example of this is when a country like Ethiopia, that's been neo-colonized by global north capitalists, exports rice and other foods while the Ethiopian working class people are starving and pushed into slums in cities (away from their land). [2] The video by Annie Dillard called the Story of Stuff [3] is still a fantastic summary of this (as are her other videos). [1] The Case for Local Food, https://www.localfutures.org/the-case-for-local-food/ https://www.localfutures.org/the-case-for-local-food/ [2] Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isiYYVmvn2U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isiYYVmvn2U [3] The Story of Stuff, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM