May 1 - June 1 Boycott Imported Food

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: benjamming
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Go ahead. I dare you to find ... a ceiling fan, for heaven's sake- ...


Barn Light Electric have ceiling fans made in USA. Granted they aren't necessarily mainstream, but it does appear to be an option.


Now those are just COOL. I'll keep that link.

There's also these guys, but I'd need a bigger house:

http://www.bigassfans.com/powerfoil_x

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Were Hunters made in the USA 30 years ago?


The "Hunter Original" model with the cast iron motor housing and oil bath bearing system was made in the US up until the early 2000's, then it was moved overseas and downgraded, then it was discontinued. Other Hunter models are a mixed bag- most were produced overseas from the start.

I've picked up a few Originals in 36" and 52" sizes (OK, I'll admit to owning 9 total...) on E-bay. My oldest ones were bought new back in the late 1970s, the newest was made in the mid 90s and bought on E-bay (5-blade 52")

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum

, together with foreign-owned companies slapping up assembly lines in the US and claiming "American Made!" on the backs of US taxpayer subsidies (don't EVEN get me started on taxpayer assault that built the Toyota plant in San Antonio.)


To whom are you angry, the foreign company that is trying to get a good deal setting up a plant here, or the politicians who sign the tax deals?

The latter irks me pretty hard; sticking existing businesses and homeowners with an unfairly large tab while the new guy gets a free ride. Better a factory than a sports complex though I guess.


Oh definitely the politicians handing out tax deals like breath mints are going to be the first ones I'd stand against the wall...

But the media that sweeps those numbers under the rug comes a close second, and the gullible people that believe it all don't get off scott-free either.

 

[PandaBear]

There are some food that you just can't grow in the US (certain tropical fruits, etc), and there are some that has very low quality if grown in the US (Kiwi, rice, etc), and there are some that grow very well in the US (Wisconsin ginseng, soybeans, etc).

I think as long as the imported food are screened and checked it is fine. We are a net food exporter and I see no problem importing food that others do better and export food that we do better. Heck, we have added enough poison and junk to our own food so it is not like the others are much better. I'd want my own local food supply to start cleaning up the act first.

Why should I support the political lobbying farmers that put up this boycott propaganda when the existing system works fine? We already have enough stupidity that makes high fructose corn syrup the default sweetener rather than sugar, I don't want any more of these stupidity.

 

[Spyder7]

I like the principle behind this idea, but to balance practicality with principle, I have to modify it slightly to be more feasible as an easily achievable permanent practice:

1. Rather than ruling out "all imports" I'll modify that to those from countries using the modern version of slave labor instead of paying their workers a living comparable to even what those on minimum wage in industrialized nations get. Therefore, I'll be excluding more than China. I will, however, continue to buy things imported from the USA, the EU, and Japan.

2. Practicality may need to over ride principle as sometimes options on certain products are going to be limited to where I can't buy locally or from a country that isn't using underpaid slave labor. In those rare cases, practicality will win out.

3. Related to (2) there is a point difference where preference is going to, again, have to give way to practicality. I can't express it as percentage because if its a one buck item, or a few bucks, the percentage difference would have to be significant (like 200%). While on big ticket items, paying even 50% extra may again mean that practicality trumps principle.

To the absolutists who may fault this approach for its caveats, my only reply is that in being a more everyday approach, its a long-term sustainable one. And over the course of year, or a lifetime, this balanced principled approach will lead to drastic reductions in overseas spending on 3rd world imports compared to blind buying where tags aren't looked at, or indifferent buying. Its not perfect, but I'm not an income level where I can just eat say $2,500 to on a 10k purchase to stand on principle. However, over the long term, the amount of money not spent on goods from these countries will be considerably more than $2,500 - just spread across more purchases that make it more feasible and sustainable.

I would recommend a similar approach for anyone else who is tired of seeing more and more of countries wealth and employment being exported wholesale to 3rd world slave labor style factories. Taking the multiplier effect into account, the more of us who go this route, the sooner the scale will start to tilt back. Nobody else is going to do it for us. The only ones who can change the status quo is each of us, one person at a time. The cumulative affect will be dramatic.

-Spyder

 

[Cutehumor]

you have to buy based on price now a days no matter where it is made. the middle class is going broke, see middle class thread.

 

[Trajan]

It's a little late to do this isn't it?

 

[andyd]

I read the label on every item of processed food before I buy. it. After all the product warnings in other stuff, I connected the dots and said said no more Chinese processed food. I will buy European food, because most of their pure food standards are better than ours. The cancer I got wasn't genetic in nature. Far as I'm concerned , that tells me it was environmental. Methyl-ethyl- bad stuff.
China has had an organized society for 5000 yrs. That an awful amount of environmental destruction. I dont get topsoil from Boston either. Loaded with lead and other bad stuff.

 

[greenaccord02]

Rather than write some longwinded reply that no one will read, let me just say that this is funny.

 

[mechanicx]

I don't buy any food sourced from China. Given the choice I wouldn't buy anything sourced from there, and fortunately with food there is that choice. I see a lot of seafood from China. I just assume it is contaminated. I wouldn't even feed a pet anything sourced from China where they seem to have no real regulation and no concern for safety.

 

[gogozy]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I don't buy any food sourced from China. Given the choice I wouldn't buy anything sourced from there, and fortunately with food there is that choice. I see a lot of seafood from China. I just assume it is contaminated. I wouldn't even feed a pet anything sourced from China where they seem to have no real regulation and no concern for safety.

i tried to do that, but it's getting difficult. often time i see product only labled package or import " by xxxx corporation xxx city, Toronto, Canada" it does not tell me where the food is made nor who made them. but then, here in Canada we wont have much fruit or veggie if we do not allow imported...

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
you have to buy based on price now a days no matter where it is made. the middle class is going broke, see middle class thread.


This type of thinking is what is causing the middle class to die out. The wal matt effect is due to self-centered materialistic people... I deserve, I deserve... They deserved their eight TVs and cheap widgets all the way to pricing themselves out of a job... Which is what they deserve precisely.

The haves and the have nots aren't going to look out for those in the middle - either group either has a gripe or a profit attempt in the game - vested interest. Money talks.

 

[greenaccord02]

Preach on it!

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum

, together with foreign-owned companies slapping up assembly lines in the US and claiming "American Made!" on the backs of US taxpayer subsidies (don't EVEN get me started on taxpayer assault that built the Toyota plant in San Antonio.)


To whom are you angry, the foreign company that is trying to get a good deal setting up a plant here, or the politicians who sign the tax deals?

The latter irks me pretty hard; sticking existing businesses and homeowners with an unfairly large tab while the new guy gets a free ride. Better a factory than a sports complex though I guess.


Oh definitely the politicians handing out tax deals like breath mints are going to be the first ones I'd stand against the wall...

But the media that sweeps those numbers under the rug comes a close second, and the gullible people that believe it all don't get off scott-free either.


The same corporations that own our politicians also own the media.

 

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: gogozy

i tried to do that, but it's getting difficult. often time i see product only labled package or import " by xxxx corporation xxx city, Toronto, Canada" it does not tell me where the food is made nor who made them. but then, here in Canada we wont have much fruit or veggie if we do not allow imported...

Its difficult I agree, and why an absolutist approach is less desirable than a principled but realistic and attainable approach. I agree with the sentiment on principle, and therefore have no issues with adopting it - other than the inevitable ones that are going to come up on certain items and where the pragmatic acceptance is a fact of life.

From my POV its more about realizing the spirit of the approach in a way that can be adopted as a lifetime approach, than getting caught up in the odd exception where plain old utilitarianism may be the necessary exception, but one that is accepted from the outset rather being a kind of ongoing acid test that, lacking essential - but exceptional - pragmatism, sets up its own failure.

It doesn't have to be perfect, and its better if it isn't, because perfection is the type of end so near impossible to reach that its barriers will rob resolve and will tend to then be abandoned entirely as that resolve must ebb over time; and therefore, due to the all or nothing prescription, when it is abandoned then its more likely abandoned entirely.

-Spyder