Part of a conversation we are having on an e-group I belong to:As I peeled my orange this morning, I noticed it has a "grown in South America" sticker on it. Normally the oranges I eat say Florida. So, do I not eat the orange I brought because it came from outside the US? Of course not. I am eating it. It tastes like an orange.
The problems I see with this whole global vs American issue are multiple:
If we ONLY buy American, there will be much we cannot buy. America has lost her edge in the world. There is much we USED TO produce, but we do not produce anymore. I don't know how to bring production industry back to America, I'm not sure it can be done. And I know for sure that I don't have the power to cause industry to come back to us. Do you?
Secondly, the time is coming (thanks a LOT to Monsanto) when we won't be able to feed ourselves if we don't buy from (or maybe steal from) wherever we can. I just watched part of one of the scariest documentaries I've ever seen about how Monsanto GMO stuff blowing in the wind, blows into a farmers field and contaminates it, and lo and behold, Monsanto now owns your field because they have a patent on the GMO stuff. It doesn't matter HOW your field gets contaminated, it's considered patent infringement and you are prosecuted. I watched farmers dump TONS of seeds down the drains because they couldn't test every seed and be SURE that it wasn't contaminated. Generations of seed saving...GONE. In this documentary I heard the death knell of farmers who are trying to resist Monsanto. I'd like to go back in time and murder the idiot that allowed patenting of plant things. One of those hindsight is 20/20 moments.
Therefore, although I will buy American IF I can find American and IF I can afford American, I don't think we can save our economy this way. I don't think, in the great ocean that is the American economy, that it will be enough...sad to say...But I'd love to be proven wrong on this one, so add your thoughts/ideas in the comments!!!
7 comments:
I still don't see that I am more obligated to attempt to make life better for someone here than for someone in another country. We are ALL children of the One, aren't we? Just because we live in this country are we special? more entitled? Nationalism sets us up to be separate from other people. I don't think that is a positive concept at all. We are all connected!
The issue of child labor is not a simple one. It is complicated by hundreds, maybe thousands of years of entrenched cultural beliefs that will not be changed overnight, nor will it be radically altered by how I shop. If these children are not working in a factory, they are often forced to turn to prostitution. Is that better? Is enduring a long difficult time working at a job preferable to starvation? I don't know? Do you?
Third world countries are developing nations. It has not been that long since children worked long hard hours right here in the good old USA. Although there had been attempts to pass child labor laws, no action was taken until after the Great Depression when in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which placed limits on child labor. Perhaps with the passage of time and with more education the developing nations will do away with child labor too. Social change, however, is incredibly slow.
I should have prefaced my previous comment with the fact that my response if part of our earlier conversation regarding to buy American or not:)
I am with you, I would also love to go back in time and prevent patents on plant materials, I know it can take some time to make a new species of plant via cross pollination and such, but goodness, bugs have done that for eons. GMO produce is a travesty and should be STOPPED ASAP or we will pay the price in early deaths. We cannot digest these foods, they are already killing animals...
I prefer to buy produce from USA simply because it has more nutrients if grown organically and locally, but I will buy it if it is from another country too. We are all part of the same family, regardless of our address.
I prefer to buy American when possible. Especially food. It is one of my soap box topics that we would all be better off eating more locally. There is lots of other stuff that can't even be found American made any longer. I don't begrudge people in other parts of the world a job, but I also am bothered by US based companies sending their work to other countries, for example, customer service call centers.
It's strange how we can make a little rule, saying, this is patented and so anyone who uses it owes me money. Even the idea of money is strange. The Native American's used decorative beads as a form of currency, then the white man came and simply counterfeited those beads to buy off all their land. The same can happen to our idea of money now, one day, someone can look at it as some stupid form of currency and write it off as worthless. Because of the untrustworthy nature of our leaders, and those who enforce the value of our currency, it is not far down the line for God to do something similar to the value of the dollar, as he allowed happen to the Native American beads. For me, I like to keep it all simple and earn my treasure in heaven. The things we have here, on the earth, can all be taken away, but the things we have in heaven cannot be stolen, and cannot decay. Amen?
I remember hearing a story about the patented seeds regarding "roundup ready" crops. My thought was that a farmer who found patented crop in his field should sue the manufacturer for contaminating his crop. I bet this has already been tried in some form, even as a defense. It is just silly to hold someone responsible for things being blown onto their land.
Unfortunately, what's been happening, greyone, is that the FARMER is being sued instead losing all of his life's work. Sadly backwards.
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