(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.
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.
It’s a bold statement to say the government polices anything other than the underprivileged.
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?
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)
Nestle owns a whole lot more than what’s shown on that chart.
all of them do
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I tried boycotting food but then I got hungry.
I started foraging and buying from farmers markets…
You must smell amazing
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.
What does soap have to do with the sweet smell of berries and fruit?
Oh, my apologies I was on the defensive and took your comment sarcastically.
I assumed earthy forests and mushrooms and was now want to forage :)
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?
You’re right, that’s pretty cynical.
It’s a bit like going “zero waste” or something. 1 person being completely zero waste, or being completely self sufficient, isn’t helping anything.
But everyone reducing their waste or being a bit self sufficient world make a big difference.
There are risks with communal groups, bit we’re better placed to navigate them than ever before.
I dunno if every human reducing their waste would make a “big” difference anymore, at this point. I mean, I do it anyway b/c it’s how I want to face the world, but I no longer have any expectations that it will affect any positive change - like even if every human being on the planet were to switch from individual cars to bicycles, how many oil spills would entirely counteract that - just one major one, maybe two more normal ones, or three “small” ones?
So I am not saying don’t do the communal stuff - go nuts! It probably really would be fun, and again therapeutic. But from a “managing expectations” standpoint, it is a personal hobby, not likely to have a realistic impact.
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.
Small actions are possible.
I won’t buy Kellogg’s any more.
Who knows, maybe all the own brand cereal manufacturers are doing horrible things too.
But I find peace in taking some action when some awful thing is done. As otherwise, I’d just have to hang my head in hopelessness.
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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.
Why are they cowards? Why would they care if it doesn’t affect their daily lives? Obviously some people care, but the majority would indeed just shrug and go back to making ends meet.
This comes down to the good old “keep the masses fed”. People are being given just the right amount of wealth. Not enough to be free and not too little to revolt.
I like that you asked a question and then answered it.
it’s still possible there were weapons of mass destruction. I mean just about as likely as it seemed back then. very very slim.
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.
Sure, subsidize producers and give people a UBI. Problem solved.
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.
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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.
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.
Your comment seems so out of touch with the reality of majority of people. I think you are taking an extremist and unreasonable stance.
Because boycotting food means you starve.
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).
I partly agree but I do think you have cause and effect (or disease and symptom if you will) swapped around. You‘re saying people don‘t do boycotts because they are futile. I would say it‘s the other way around and to answer OPs question, I think it largely comes down to commodity and mindlessness. But either way I think you are definitely right to suggest there must be systemic change and that all of this co2 compensation bullshit is just corporations guilt-tripping us into thinking we can consume our way out of this mess. However, the problem is that both approaches, the personal boycotts and the systemic change share a common factor, which is the requirement of mass action. If people aren‘t mindful enough to stop buying a particular kind of yoghurt, how are you ever going to get them to vote, much less stage a revolution? I think we need to get out of our passivity and boycotting things is a step in the right direction to establish a feel for personal agency.
If people aren‘t mindful enough to stop buying a particular kind of yoghurt, how are you ever going to get them to vote, much less stage a revolution? I think we need to get out of our passivity
How about people who aren’t mindful enough of those who can’t stop buying one brand or another, but especially of the reasons why??? (like - they only have one local store that only carries the one brand, or they carry two brand made by the same parent company, or they have three brands, two by the same company and the third by another one with just-as-bad practices. Or they’re too poor to buy the more “ethical” brand, or they simply don’t have the time in their day to even be aware of a boycott over exploitative practices, because they themselves are being exploited at 3 different jobs just to survive) I guarantee that a lack of that kind of mindfulness hurts the working class significantly more than the kind you’re angry about.
If you want people to stop being “passive” - you destroy the system designed to keep them that way (not actually passive at all, they’re probably more active than you’ll ever be, just deliberately kept undereducated and too busy trying to survive), insisting on them continuing to play by the rules said system has made available to them (precisely because they have no real impact) only serves those in power to maintain the status quo.
That article needs to be its own post
George Monbiot is a fantastic writer.
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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.
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.
In my view, the issue is that most people are not willing to change their own patterns in the slightest.
It’s always somebody else’s responsibility to give things exactly how they want. Personal responsibility and decisions have no play.
“Fuck Nestle. Oh yeah but I needed water, what was I supposed to do, die? I had no choice but to purchase water in plastic, there was no other store around and I don’t know how to plan for my needs in advance. There is simply no way to anticipate that I could have needed water and fill a reusable bottle before I leave the house.”
“The price of fast food is insane. It does not occur to me that I don’t need to purchase this, and I have no inherent right to get it at a cheap price. It has also never occurred to me to go to the grocery store. Oh wait, yes it actually did occur to me, but I really don’t want to cook, I want somebody else to make the food for me and for it to be cheap.”
Personally, I’m done with Sony, I’m done with Nestle, I’m done with Walmart, I’m done with fast food, I’m done with Netflix. I’m done with all the places that behave unethically, and it would not be fair of me to complain about them while also patronizing them. I don’t think you’ll find this attitude in general population.
It’s also because “the free market will fix it” is neoliberal bullshit that is pushed precisely because it doesn’t work. It’s just a way of blaming consumers for the horrifically immoral actions of corporations and they’ve suckered you right in.
Regulations could immediately stop Nestle using child slaves, no boycotts required.
I hate Walmart too and we definitely gave up fast food. But my only other choice for groceries is Reasors and they are fucking us on prices. So where do I shop for my groceries?
This guy wouldn’t know the meaning of the phrase “food desert” if it hit him at 60 mph while he was in a crosswalk.
I agree saw his reply to another comment who raised a similar point and he thinks we are just not looking hard enough. Dude clueless. Must be nice to live somewhere that has 1000 choices.
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.
