Dirty Words? GLOBAL OUTSOURCING - Also, is the world flat ?

[me&thegals]

Great points! I think the concept of global food is a bit nutty, unless for things that absolutely cannot grow in one's own climate (coffee, tea, cacao). Why should I have pears shipped from Puerto Rico in Jan. just so I can have pears? Anything that CAN be grown/made in one's own area should be, IMO, just to lower use of fossil fuels and energy in general. On the other hand, things that involve call centers, internet connections and brain power can and should, IMO, happen anywhere.

 

[Nifty]

Ugh... the news and this thread are ruining me!!

I keep looking at everything and wondering why we waste so much!?!?! We went to Taco Smell... er.. um Bell today and I couldn't believe all the waste... bags, containers, etc. The problem is that I'm just not to the point where I want to go "totally granola" and start living in a mud/straw house and eat from the earth with no carbon footprint, etc. I like my toys, my electronics, my consumer lifestyle... and my family does too. I'm stuck in this terrible phase of wanting to not be so wasteful, but not wanting to not be so wasteful. At least I find a bit of solace in the fact that compared to many people in the US, we're pretty frugal and try to do what we can to preserve the environment (hey, that's all I have and I'm sticking with it... so don't take it away from me! :/ ).

 

[me&thegals]

Baby steps I can handle one small change at a time until it becomes habit, then I'm ready to take on the next one. So, speaking of global and food, I've ditched most fruit that doesn't grow in America during the winter. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but now my jaw drops when I see grapefruit in someone's home in August!

I'm listening to the Omnivore's Dilemma. I've also read other books that describe the devastation on distant economies when THEIR food becomes part of OUR supply chain. In this specific case, food is expected to be so cheap in America that they get squeezed until they have no room to move in order to supply a huge supply chain in America. Some things seem to make more sense going global than others. How could a food picked unripe across the earth, then flown or shipped to the edge of my continent, then trucked to me and gassed to finish ripening it possibly make sense?

 

[Beekissed]

But they can provide that fruit more cheaply and do it better than can we, also providing for their families and bringing them out of poverty.... Just a different kind of outsourcing, surely?

 

[me&thegals]

Yes, I know. It makes sense in 1 way, not in another. I have read, though, that outsourcing food actually collapses local economies because they are forced to produce it so cheaply for U.S. markets. Not sure what to think about it. It just doesn't make sense to me from a health and energy view, either.

 

[reinbeau]

Personally I'm against big centralization of our food supply, which is one of the reasons I grow my own. I don't grow my own meat, however (chickens don't count, they're pets that lay eggs! ) but I do seek local sources for it. I have to admit I'm no fan of globalization, despite what I've read here. I'll keep my comments mostly to the food supply, which I think is best kept as local as possible. Importing things like chocolate and other goods are one thing, but turning over huge sections of our food supply to agribusinesses is just bad policy as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Beekissed]

Amen to that!

 

[poppycat]

Personally I think that globalization of the food supply is "living beyond our means" on a macro level. I find it worrisome that something as basic as our meals are dependent on an abundant supply of fossil fuel. Not only that, but soil is being depleted and water is being fouled in poorer countries so that people in wealthy countries can eat luxury food on the cheap.

I don't object to limited trade of some items like coffee, olive oil, etc. Those things can't be grown in temperate climates and the economies of the areas that produce them are buoyed by trading with the US. But it's a slippery slope. Shrimp farming, for example, has ruined coastal ecologies in quite a few Asian countries. Additionally the shrimp aren't even healthy to eat as they are contaminated with heavy metals and the like. It would be economically castastrophic for those people to stop shrimp farming. In 20/20 hind sight one could say it would have been better to have never started the enterprise.

I don't object to food being imported to countries in times of famine. I do object to companies like Monsanto and ADM swooping in and providing "aid" which in turn holds people hostage to their products, destroys the soil, and robs them of genetically diverse seeds that have been developed over generations.

Again this is why I am hesitant to completely embrace or reject globalization. We just don't know what the true costs are going to be.

 

[me&thegals]

Wonderfully said, Poppycat! In order to meet nonlocal demand, farmed salmon are now fed corn! Imagine the petroleum in that whole system...

 

[Nifty]

Holy cow! My wife sent this to me! How would you like this to be your job?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yjoyF0NuYA

Talk about tough jobs in other parts of the world... sheesh!