53 ms·

I’ll believe it when 95% of the things I buy don’t come from Asia

koolba 4y ago
95% of what? Disposable income spent on clothing and trinkets? Assuming you’re living in the west somewhere, you housing and food expenses would be local. Ditto for the majority of your energy consumption.
- pengaru 4y ago
  > and food expenses would be local Do you purchase food stuffs in the USA? It's absolutely not a safe assumption that food purchased here is locally grown/produced. That hasn't been the case for a long time, decade+ I'd estimate just based on experience.
  - WoodenChair 4y ago
    Only 15% of the US food supply is imported. [0] 0: https://www.fda.gov/food/importing-food-products-united-states/fda-strategy-safety-imported-food https://www.fda.gov/food/importing-food-products-united-stat...
    - shepherdjerred 4y ago
      I wonder how they measure that. Is it by calories, weight, cost?
      - pengaru 4y ago
        If it's calories that's a pretty easy game for corn syrup to win...
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - pengaru 4y ago
      Whatever the stats I personally struggle to source domestic food for the things I consume, especially if trying to keep costs low. Avocados come from Mexico, most tree nuts come from Asia, canned fish from Asia or Canada and sometimes Morocco. I've met low-income anti-Mexican bigots who have entirely altered their diets to not include much produce, despite liking produce, because most the affordable produce available to them comes from Mexico. At least Florida oranges are still commonplace, but even cheap oranges are often carrying grown in Mexico stickers. I'm lucky to be in CA where I can pretty reliably access (and afford) CCOF produce at the organics shop. But when I go to the Safeway-echelon grocers, even in the organics section, the US is not well represented.
      - ldh0011 4y ago
        Ok preferring to support local agriculture is one thing, and probably admirable in many cases, but how much of an idiot does someone have to be to stop eating produce because it comes from Mexico :facepalm:. Being less healthy is really showing them!
        pengaru 4y ago
        One person I'm thinking of in particular said she didn't believe the water was safe to drink there, so how could the produce be safe to eat? She was elderly and had learned long ago not to drink the water when traveling in Mexico. But I'm sure there was a bunch of unstated racism underneath that, just based on who she was... Personally I don't like consuming food grown in China because if the world has outsourced all its polluting industrial activities to China, it seems likely the food has more toxins in it. Just the air pollution there alone has to permeate the food grown outdoors and all the soil.
        ldh0011 4y ago
        Yeah the pollution angle actually makes sense to me with my layman's knowledge of agriculture. Though with water specifically I wonder if Mexican (tap?) water being unsafe for humans to drink translates to the water they use for crops being less safe than American crop water. This piqued my interest on Mexican agriculture though and I found this relatively recent gem... US lobbyists trying to get the US government to bully Mexico into having less stringent food safety measures. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-monsanto-mexico-us-glyphosate-ban https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-mo...

95% of what? Disposable income spent on clothing and trinkets? Assuming you’re living in the west somewhere, you housing and food expenses would be local. Ditto for the majority of your energy consumption.

pengaru 4y ago
> and food expenses would be local Do you purchase food stuffs in the USA? It's absolutely not a safe assumption that food purchased here is locally grown/produced. That hasn't been the case for a long time, decade+ I'd estimate just based on experience.
- WoodenChair 4y ago
  Only 15% of the US food supply is imported. [0] 0: https://www.fda.gov/food/importing-food-products-united-states/fda-strategy-safety-imported-food https://www.fda.gov/food/importing-food-products-united-stat...
  - shepherdjerred 4y ago
    I wonder how they measure that. Is it by calories, weight, cost?
    - pengaru 4y ago
      If it's calories that's a pretty easy game for corn syrup to win...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - pengaru 4y ago
    Whatever the stats I personally struggle to source domestic food for the things I consume, especially if trying to keep costs low. Avocados come from Mexico, most tree nuts come from Asia, canned fish from Asia or Canada and sometimes Morocco. I've met low-income anti-Mexican bigots who have entirely altered their diets to not include much produce, despite liking produce, because most the affordable produce available to them comes from Mexico. At least Florida oranges are still commonplace, but even cheap oranges are often carrying grown in Mexico stickers. I'm lucky to be in CA where I can pretty reliably access (and afford) CCOF produce at the organics shop. But when I go to the Safeway-echelon grocers, even in the organics section, the US is not well represented.
    - ldh0011 4y ago
      Ok preferring to support local agriculture is one thing, and probably admirable in many cases, but how much of an idiot does someone have to be to stop eating produce because it comes from Mexico :facepalm:. Being less healthy is really showing them!
      - pengaru 4y ago
        One person I'm thinking of in particular said she didn't believe the water was safe to drink there, so how could the produce be safe to eat? She was elderly and had learned long ago not to drink the water when traveling in Mexico. But I'm sure there was a bunch of unstated racism underneath that, just based on who she was... Personally I don't like consuming food grown in China because if the world has outsourced all its polluting industrial activities to China, it seems likely the food has more toxins in it. Just the air pollution there alone has to permeate the food grown outdoors and all the soil.
        ldh0011 4y ago
        Yeah the pollution angle actually makes sense to me with my layman's knowledge of agriculture. Though with water specifically I wonder if Mexican (tap?) water being unsafe for humans to drink translates to the water they use for crops being less safe than American crop water. This piqued my interest on Mexican agriculture though and I found this relatively recent gem... US lobbyists trying to get the US government to bully Mexico into having less stringent food safety measures. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-monsanto-mexico-us-glyphosate-ban https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-mo...