I know some five years back when I was more lib, there was talk and articles on how palm oil harvesting was using slave labor and people were killing orangutans and stuff. It’s basically resulted in me avoiding stuff with palm oil, which tends to include some of the fancier snacks at times and convenience foods as well.
But it wasn’t until recently I found myself wondering, is palm oil really on par with the shit that goes on with chocolate? Or is this on some level the usual anti-Asian sentiment I see in so much Western media, possibly taking some bad instances and extrapolating it to countries and peoples’ as a whole?
P.S. sorry for the run-on sentences. I actually shaved it down a bit. Anyway, may disappear for a few hours, but this has been weighing on me a bit.
Great writeup, thanks for that!
Indeed. For me, the way I found to cope is to try my best to buy food directly from farmers in my community or through local co-ops, but I know this is nigh impossible to most working class people living in urban areas, and it won’t reduce the exploitation of people in the global South, or the environmental degradation it entails. That, and supporting people fighting to change the food system from their local reality in any way I can. That’s why I made it my career.
When it comes to clothes, I thrift most of what I own, but then again, I’m lucky that thrifting hasn’t become expensive where I live yet.