(US Perspective) It’s hard to boycott food when like 10 companies own everything. Even store brands are just re-packaged “name” brands.
Edit: Obligatory: Fuck Nestle. I’m already boycotting the whole left side of that chart.
Not trying to gotcha you or nothing, but it’s funny, that image being hosted on amazon aws.
Haha. I was going to upload it to my own instance, but AWS-hosted media typically don’t block hotlinking. Saves me some bandwidth egress costs and storage xD
Fuck Nestle indeed. I’ve been boycotting their shit since they started hawking water bottled in communities without reliable access to clean water.
Donxc forget the other issues on supermarket chain. Which are also an oligopoly.
One of the reason why european farmer are getting angry is that they are pushed to sell at low prices by supermarket purchasing departments and see the price of their products multiplied by 10 when sold to the consumer.
Not consuming highly processed food from Nestle is doable. Not buying anything at the supermarket gets complicated unless you have money and time (and I wouldn’t be surprised that many neighbourhood and organic shop still buy food through the large supermarket purchasing chain)
My local farmers market is really nice.
Yeah, these are all prepared foods in the picture. Maybe people don’t know but you can just like… make your own food.
Lots of things are just flour with other ingredients baked in an oven. Soda is just sugar and fizzy water. If you’ve never had homemade potato chips, you haven’t lived.
This weekend, find a recipe for a basic ingredient that you like (ketchup, mayo, bread, etc.) and buy the ingredients for it. Then make it. You’ll be surprised how easy and tasty it is. Mayo is like eggs and oil. Why pay $5 for a crappy version of it?
That’s not even just a US perspective. That definitely applies to North America in general and Europe. There are supposedly anti-monopoly laws but huh, would you look at that… it’s almost like they’re ineffective.
While the corporations own the government, the government will never effectively police the corporations.
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Nestle owns a whole lot more than what’s shown on that chart.
I tried boycotting food but then I got hungry.
I started foraging and buying from farmers markets…
You must smell amazing
Your comment is unbelievably ignorant and assuming.
In reality foraging is a great way to supplement your diet of farmers market produce on top of having an edible garden.
There is also the fact that my farmers market also includes a local soap maker…
If your local farmers market doesn’t have a soap maker go try your local craft market instead of posting redundant comments like this.
What does soap have to do with the sweet smell of berries and fruit?
It’s not possible to boycott a brand over an action if every other brand is doing the same fucking thing.
… some friends and I have been discussing a monthly meetup where we exchange around food or other things we do, like handiwork. I wonder what’s involved in baking up a bunch of corn flakes that aren’t made of garbage? Maybe it’d be fun to have people over and figure it out. Mix up the recipe a little each month, or pass it around between the group members.
I’m not trying to shame you like this is obvious, but I have also been thinking about “how can I escape this corporate hellscape???” and this is starting to be more the direction I’m heading.
People have tried that before - every attempt at a utopian society has failed. e.g. perhaps someone will bring “homemade milk”, and after the 99th time people begin to relax and whoopsie forget to check it, then a large portion of the group gets exposed to a serious illness, maybe many die, the problems with communal actions get revealed.
Or else that person decides to get REALLY serious with their milk, and people decide to help chip in each week to defray the costs… and voila, capitalism is rediscovered!:-D
Though for the therapeutic benefits alone, it’s probably mostly worthwhile - and anyway I’m cynical and bitter so please don’t let that stop you:-). Probably the fact that you can see people’s faces that would be affected by everyone’s actions may make the difference?
It’s probably worth giving a try - I usually bake my own bagels and that’s an economically reasonable activity… I’d be worried that cereal would be unreasonable to do without a dehydrator or other specialized equipment but there’s a lot of cook-ready food you could make. Pickled veggies and peppers are amazing, perogies or dumplings are easy to make in a freeze friendly manner, spaghetti sauce is insanely good vut usually doesn’t freeze well - that’s a classic example of a dish where it takes equal amounts of effort to prepare for two people or two dozen.
Cereal might not be the best but there are alternatives if you can get a group together… especially if you can cut across food cultures!
The corporations returned to oligopolism years ago. The government knows, and they’re complicit.
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I learned what cowards Americand are when it was admitted that the Iraq War was started on lies and everyone just shrugged and went about their day.
What’s the alternative? Price control by state?
Get corporate money out of politics, bust up monopolies/oligopolies, implement better regulations that hold executives/board members personally liable
Seize the means of production!
More seriously though, follow the money.
If the profits of the company were predominantly distributed to the workers-as-owners then they probably won’t be mandating 5% year-on-year profit growth or chasing an ever growing share price.
They could, but it’d be themselves they’ll be exploiting.
Where there is an “out of sight out of mind” separation between the owners (shareholders, board, CxO’s) and workers then exploitation is invisible and the money is the only important aspect.
Because boycotting food means you starve.
Boycotts work in luxury markets with strong competition. Necessity markets with highly concentrated monopolies? No chance. Without legislation to protect consumers, they are powerless to defend themselves against the greed and exploitation of corporate interests.
It doesn’t matter, because boycotts are generally futile since they at best only address skin level symptoms (at worst, and almost always - you’re just giving your money to a different scummy capitalist), they can’t cure the cancer, which is precisely why they’re touted as a wonderful solution (by capitalists trying to ensure the public don’t take any meaningful action against them).
That article needs to be its own post
George Monbiot is a fantastic writer.
The biggest shrinkflation culprit is food. People need food. Recent trends do, in fact, show that American consumers have been switching to cheaper brands and reducing consumption of some items, but boycotting is unrealistic. People need to eat and a handful of massive corporations own most brands.
What, haven’t you all spent three months to grow one head of lettuce? Just skip breakfast for breakfast and eat cereal for dinner!
This is extra funny to me because I do grow leafy greens.
It’s a tough pill to swallow
But 150 years ago, folks were being given swaths of land, not knowing dick about that land, just for like… Fighting in wars.
Now, they let veterans starve and kill themselves.
Just saw a sad gif of a long line at the Costco rotisserie chicken stand.
People won’t say enough is enough until they’re hungry.
We’re close.
The most lucrative positions are experiencing enormous layoffs.
2025-2030 is going to be WWIII and the greatest class war.of all time.
I just hope shit turns out okay for 2030 and beyond. Global warming ain’t making that likely.
Sorry for doomer. But we either have a Renaissance era and burn or have an enslavement era and burn. I’m not loving the odds.
I am not a historian, but I get a sense that perhaps the intellectuals at least seemed to think that democracy (in the USA specifically, but also perhaps everywhere?) were just waiting to see how this grand “experiment” turns out. So there has practically always (since 1776 when the fire of democracy was re-ignited in the world after its long hiatus) been this expectation that we might someday fail, and each time something highly challenging comes around they likely re-visited that thought that perhaps it would be soon?
The difference is that this time, it’s for real. Even if there were solves already in-place for both globalization and automation, how would climate change be dealt with? I am not saying that it’s a 100% certainty - nothing ever truly is, until it has already happened - but I am agreeing with you that there seems less room for hope than ever before, that our way of life will survive intact.
I predict, for instance, that people will start demanding that their employers offer them housing. They might even start demanding longer-term contracts. In essence, they WANT slavery, as opposed to what is coming: anarchy & lawlessness. What good is “freedom” when you have no home, no job, no food, and can’t do what you want anyway? This whole “government = bad” idea will cause many people to take refuge in the only other thing that offers even a glimpse of a good(-ish) life: enslavement to corporations. In return they will house, feed, and clothe you - if only barely - and you will in turn commit your very soul to looking after their needs rather than your own, including devoting every waking moment of… oh my, we are already there! (except without the “taking care of you part”)
Can you take that last part, put it to a cool font, add some vaporwave and a filter, and make it the stylings of an Cyberpunk 80s movie?
With a bit of rewording, it would be rad for a pixel indie game or something. It goes hard.
And its uncomfortable so I want it in a more palatable form lol
Best I can offer is this:
I believe it is a self-portrait of Donald Trump’s clone from 2040?
Your dystopia doesn’t account for automation. Corporations don’t even want your labour.
A social crisis seems inevitable on our current trajectory.
Then for WHO are the corporations creating products for? There isn’t a growing pool of rich people. It’s shrinking.
They won’t be at that point. Their extraction of all the wealth will be complete, and all of their needs met. As for us? Well who knows?
Well I did say that people would demand it… which as you correctly point out, is by no means a guarantee that corporations would want to accept.
The difference is that this time, it’s for real. Even if there were solves already in-place for both globalization and automation, how would climate change be dealt with?
When I was a kid all the churches said that globalization was a sure sign that we’re in the end times. I think it’s interesting that you now quote that as one of the signs that we are.
What good is “freedom” when you have no home, no job, no food, and can’t do what you want anyway?
This is defeatism. It’s surrender. There was a group of men 247 years ago who demanded death if not given liberty. They would rather die than live under monarchial rule any longer. We have fallen quite far if a return to corporate servitude is considered a viable option a mere hundred years after defeating its last ugly resurgence during the industrial revolution. You do not reward your oppressors with capitulation, you reward them with combat.
USA was never a democracy, though. It’s a republic, and recent decades have shown it to become more and more the banana variant.
It’s an interesting perspective. Wherein I see people deliberately destroying property of the “automated” on a scale of property damage the world has never seen.
Like it won’t be kings heads rolling. It’ll be their drones burning.
I mean sure, that too but… what would it accomplish really? There is an arms race, but look at Bill Gate’s house… exactly (first, where is it, second, which one(s), third, they are on like entire HUGE islands, fourth they can move the whole thing at a moment’s notice, fifth there are other defensive options too, etc. etc. etc.), plus there will always be the “collaborators” who will say “but no, they are the JOB creators” as if that justifies doing, or not doing, anything at all.
Anyway, tech has reached the point that we can put it inside of our very bodies, to hide & power it, plus with CRISPR the tech flat-out becomes our bodies. At least, if you are talking about the stuff available to
billionairestrillionaires, whereas to us “normies” all we get are cellphones to mollify & pacify us, yay (and even that privilege comes at the cost of also tracking us, plus can be taken away if we do not cooperate fully or fast enough).Anyway, tech is neither Good nor Evil, it simply is - and automation isn’t the problem, though it could be part of the solution, e.g. if it were to solve climate change for us?
but look at Bill Gate’s house… exactly (first, where is it,
1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, Washington, USA
You can drive right up to the front gate, but that’s as far as you’ll get. The entire property is built for security. 2/3rds of it is underground, one side of it is against a cliff, and the gate itself is solid steel, probably 10 inches thick. I’ve been there, and you can’t see anything except for the gate and guardhouse from the street. Beyond the front gate are buildings on both sides before the second gate, like an old castle barbican, complete with kill zone.
What I think could actually help would be to put into law that the per-weight price needs to be displayed just as prominently as the actual total price.
The problem right now is that largely people don’t notice if the packaging is the same size but the weight is slightly lower and the price is the same. If the per-weight price was shown as prominently as the actual price, people might suddenly notice the price hike more easily.
Or at least require actual prices instead of crap like “3 for $8.00 with card”. You have to read through several different fine-print prices at the very bottom of the label to find what the actual price is.
Hmmm I don’t see that kind of stuff in Denmark, possibly we already have laws preventing that sort of crap.
Safeway is the worst about it. They mark everything up by a preposterous amount, and then sell it at the regular price, but only if you’re a “club member” and only if you buy 4 of whatever you needed one of. Then they sell your data after you make the purchase. Oh, and those were perishable goods, so you either massively overpaid for one item and wasted money, or you bought four, half of it spoiled before you could use it, and you wasted money.
Sounds pretty shit. We have “nemlig” for home delivery of groceries. Used it a few times, seemed reasonable.
I’m already jealous. Do the label prices also include taxes? Cause ours sure don’t. lol
Of course, it’s always the same tax anyway and it must be included by law. The per weight price is also always stated but it’s always in tiny text - my suggestion is simply to require it to be displayed just as prominently :)
Between you and Sandi Toksvig making it sound amazing, I’m seriously considering retiring to Denmark lol
It’s the best country in the world if you ask me :)
But getting temporary and then later permanent residence, let alone citizenship is not easy, especially if you are not in the EU. Not that it’s impossible.
In Québec, (some) of the grocery price tags include a fine print with the $/100g.
They go out of their way to make this the smallest thing possible though.
There’s plenty of other misleading tagging going on too.
And I think it’s only certain items, maybe not all.
It’s a good idea and helpful, but should be more prominent and apply to literally all foods.And that’s before tax, although not all foods are taxed.
A lot of stores put that on their labels, but they engage in fuckery making you do the math yourself to compare. An example is that they’ll show how much something is per ounce for one brand, and then show how much it is per can/pound/bag/whatever for another brand.
We have per weight pricing on a lot of items in The Netherlands. It’s great for comparing different items when you’re in the supermarket, but doesn’t really work against shrinkification. You simply don’t remember the price-per-kg from last week.
We have it too in Denmark but it’s usually a tiny font compared to the actual price. Which is why I say just as prominently. I’ve actually started to write per weight prices down so I can compare better.
We have that where I live and it honestly makes buying per weight / per sheet, incredibly helpful.
There’s been so many times, just looking at the packaging, I thought it was a great deal to then see the per weight price and release what a rip off it was.
Massive quality of life for sure!
We have it too in Denmark but not as prominently as the actual price.
We live in an apartment. I can’t grow my own food. What do you expect us to eat? Do you have any idea how hard it is to actually avoid buying products that support one of these greedy brands? It’s almost everything on the shelf.
I certainly have stoped buying a lot of things. Skipping our vacation this year as well. I’m never gonna spend $8 on a box of cereal, they can get fucked on that price point. Buying more in bulk at Costco. I already didn’t use Amazon.
It’s so effective, but you just can’t expect to get everyone on board sadly. Unfortunately it seems that there will always be those that value the convenience of Amazon, for example, over pushing for real change. Look at Bud Light, I hated the reasoning behind the boycott but it showed just how powerful collective action can be against corporations.
How exactly did it show that? From what I saw, a bunch of people went out and bought Bud Light so they could film themselves on TikTok destroying the cans, Bud Light got a bunch of free publicity, and then everyone forgot about it. That’s not exactly meaningful change.
I would think that there were very few people doing that overall. I’ll have to find the articles again but they suffered a massive drop in sales, it’s possible though that those sales figures have since recovered but I don’t have that info on hand.
When ‘let them eat kellogs’ becomes more of a reality
You see, were old poor. Were used to it. You need new poor to really get things going
What am I going to do? Starve? There isn’t a grocery store in my area that’s not doing this. So those are my choices.
Look man, I’m not trying to isolate you or pick on you… But I find this kind of victim mentality to be exhausting and frankly, intellectually dishonest.
You know darn well that your choices are not limited to pay or starve. You have the ability to adapt your life and to change your consumption patterns.
I even called out the “I guess I’ll die then” mentality in a previous comment. Get a grip on your own life, and stop being a feebleton, acting like a trapped animal that has no ability to govern their own life.
Perhaps there is a middle solution, where you examine your consumption patterns and realize that you’ve become a victim of the “convenience tax” and you can opt out at any time.
Hard disagree. I already buy the store brand. Already buy in largest container with best $/Oz. Already restrict buying certain things unless they’re on sale. Already cook from scratch as much as possible. Next step is buying a damn cow.
Your comment seems so out of touch with the reality of majority of people. I think you are taking an extremist and unreasonable stance.
Of course I can make room in my budget. Right next to the record setting rent prices that are already causing record levels of homelessness.
What convenience are you talking about? Are we supposed to grow our own vegetables, as well as work multiple jobs and cook from scratch? What’s next? Instead of shopping the outside, buying only on sale, and cooking from scratch we now to timeshare a fucking farm?
This doesn’t make sense at the micro or macro level. The economy works best when people and companies are specialized. If you have to take time out to grow your own food then that’s lost economic productivity. It’s also probably too expensive in terms of the trade off for what you’d be paid at a job and covering your other bills
So put down your oblique attempt to use the avocado toast meme and go read some real news.
Ah yes. The old “I bear no responsibility for my own life so I’ll ball up a bunch of grievances and represent them as an insurmountable brick wall. I’ll double down on my hysterics and start talking about growing vegetables rather than take a sober look at my own consumption patterns because it is emotionally more soothing to point the finger at others; I’ve made myself a helpless victim. I’m nothing more than a cork floating in an ocean, subjected to huge forces beyond my comprehension and control. What happens in my life is like Brownian motion. Please do not mention anything about how I govern myself” meme
Get. A. Grip.
Wow you really drank the Kool Aid in the whole poor people are lazy thing. I honestly hope you never find out what the Poverty Trap is. But for the sake of your knowledge you should probably look it up. While you’re at it, look up what a Food Desert is too.
Because the rest of us can’t be bothered to sit here and listen to you tell poor people to take responsibility for record inflation after they were already deciding which utility bills to pay each month. That’s a toxic attitude and I’ve literally watched it get people killed overseas.
The victim mentality around here is astonishing.
