Local vs Corporate

Is it better to buy your commodity goods at giant corporate chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, knowing you're buying better quality products that are more "wholesome," to use that term loosely; or is it better, if you can, to buy your commodity goods locally, even if it means not buying organic or supporting the small-scale producers that seem to end up on the shelves of "health food" stores?

I thought I had reached clarity on this, but I'm having a hard time following-through with it. I decided a few weeks ago that it's better to buy locally and support local economy, even if it means giving your economic contributions to a mass-producer like Goya than a more holistic company like some (and I can't stress that enough) of the producers who stock Whole Foods shelves who don't operate under the umbrella of an MNC. Would I rather buy black beans in bulk? You bet. Would I rather buy them in a can from Amy's than from Goya? Of course. But I think that local economy trumps that concern. If I am buying "ethically," again a term I am using loosely for a lot of reasons, I am still supporting one of the fastest growing, union-busting, independent-grocer-crushing giants in the country. Yes I'm talking about Whole Foods. Ultimately I sleep easier at night knowing that money went to profit a local owner who might own another grocery store on the other side of town called "Fresh Foods 2" or something hoaky like that. At least I know the profits being made are going back into my community more efficiently than Whole Foods can do it.

But yeah, there is still a lot to be said for supporting producers and manufacturers who operate more ethically. The argument could be made that local business owners model themselves off of bigger corporate entities, and that if demand for Amy's vegan black bean burgers trumped Boca, local places would stock Amy's. But then how big will Amy's become, and for how long can they uphold their ethics while producing on that big of a scale? It all comes full circle in that sense.

I'd like to hear what you all think. If you have a few minutes, which you obviously do if you've read to this point, comment here with your thoughts on the issue. It's becoming a very important issue in what some people, including myself, see as the next necessary step in our economic evolution if we are to become a sustainable species: consuming more intelligently, and ultimately consuming much less.

Russian dining.

After ordering a humble oatmeal, toast and coffee at Boris' Cafe, I did not want to crowd the family diner, in spite of several empty tables and booths. So, I paid my $8.50 and left. Walking around the suburban downtown of Winnetka, IL, I passed a closed antique shop proudly displaying in their front window a poster, which detailed the many reasons to shop locally and support local economy. Not having sated my caffeine fix, I walked into Panera Bread to have a soy mocha. It cost me $4.50 (more than half my bill at Boris'), tastes way too refined, and is tugging at my conscience. The next time I am offered corporate familiarity over neighborhood comfort, I will resist, humbled.

Not in my name, either; on Israel & Palestine

I've been reading a zine I picked up at Quimby's on Saturday, called Kicking at Clouds. It is a compilation of journal entries and email correspondence from a young woman that reflect the four months she spent working with the International Medical Relief Committee in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. It is told from a very personal, very subjective point of view, one that aligns itself against the occupation.

I do not have many opportunities to talk to people about my feelings on this issue—I have lost the friendship of at least one person based on them—because of the poor understanding the majority of people have of what is happening there. I'm going to talk about it here, and I welcome any discussion from anybody who happens to read it, because that is how we help understand one another and break down communicative barriers.

What the Israeli government is doing in Israel and Palestine, with regards to the occupation, is positively evil. Ever since the UN land sanctions following WWII created the nation of Israel out of land taken from neighboring countries, Israel has used the thousands of years of oppression put upon its people, as well as the horror of the Holocaust, to justify strong military, political and nationalist campaigns. The nation most defiant to Israel's expansion, and the one who has by far received the heaviest of her blows, is Palestine.

When most people in the western world, particularly the US, watch TV specials or read articles on the situation there, they read about the suicide bomb campaigns undertaken by Palestinian terrorists, and how they target innocent Israeli civilians. These attacks are true, and they are brutal. However, what people here don't read about is the extent of brutality, racism and lawlessness that characterizes the Israeli army's occupation of Palestine.

Israeli tanks and jeeps frequent Palestinian towns and cities, blockading streets, shooting at children and teenagers (or really anybody who hurls a rock). Soldiers enter at will and without discretion the homes and apartments of entire families. They lock the family in a room at gunpoint while they ransack their home, looking for weapons, destroying their belongings. They shoot live rounds, they explode grenades. If the street is not safe enough to use from building to building, they blow out entire walls to avoid it. This happens to ordinary families. What happens to suspected terrorists is worse. Rather than blow out a wall and smash the sinks and toilets, they rally the family outside while they demolish the entire home with tankfire. Keep in mind that these victims are not tried and convicted; they are merely suspected, and they are left with nothing.

Israeli citizens are all obligated to military service, no matter who they are. Many do not wish to serve, but since they must, they are quick to adopt the most simple reasons for their actions. The suicide bombings, the hatred, the oppression, the Holocaust. It does not behoove many of them to consider what they are doing to the Palestinians, who are not allowed a police force, let alone a military to respond to the injustice inflicted by the Israeli army, or what their actions continue to do to them: breed more hatred, ignite more violent passions, disenchant more ordinary people to the extent that they view ALL Israelis as the enemy (and are willing to attack accordingly).

The term Zionist has positive connotations among most of western civilization. It is symbolic of a movement for peaceful, recognized sanctuary for the millions of oppressed Jewish people around the world. This is a misconstrued understanding, at least compared to the actions taken by Israel to realize it. Most people know very little, if anything at all, of the wall currently under construction to permanently separate Israel from Palestine. It is 8m high, it has security cameras and guard towers every 10ft or so, and it offers very few checkpoints through which people can pass from either side. Israel has intentionally placed this wall outside its internationally recognized boundary (the Green Line), and it has destroyed Palestinian towns and villages to make room for it. This should not come as a shock, though. Ever since the original UN land sanctions, Israel has continued to steal (or annex, if you prefer) land from its neighbors, most notably from Palestine. The Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank shrink annually.

When I describe my stance as anti-Israeli, people tend to automatically associate it as anti-Semitic, too. This is such an unfortunate failure to distinguish between the actions of a government and the religion of the people it represents. Even a simple look at Israeli policy shows how brutal and terroristic it is. Israel continues to justify its campaigns by mentioning the suicide bombings and civilian death tolls it suffers. Yet, it fails to even consider the facts that suicide bombings have been reduced in recent years and that many, many more Palestinian civilians have died unjustly at the hands of Israeli soldiers than have Israeli civilians at those of Palestinian militants.

Israel cries martyrdom and persecution for her religious beliefs whenever challenged. She has a right to do so. But for how long will Sharon and company make these cries to horribly and ironically justify their Zionist policy, which condones acts we would consider war crimes? How long will the rest of the world continue to hold Israel unaccountable for committing them?

Macy's: Outstanding Service

(If you're a customer [sometimes].)

It's review time at work, which is something I really do not enjoy doing. I'd written everyone's reviews a few weeks ago, and it was my first time writing them. We have five ratings for any given category: Outstanding, Excellent, Satisfactory Plus, Satisfactory, and Unsatisfactory. The bottom two are self-explanatory. Satisfactory Plus means the person performs the job meeting all expectations, and sometimes exceeding. Excellent is given to someone who clearly exceeds all expectations and requires no coaching, shows initiative, etc. Outstanding is reserved for the absolute best of the best, so to speak; it, I was told, is unattainable by anyone.

My reviews, I was told after I had written them, were too generous and my scores were too high, and they would need to be reviewed. I hadn't properly understood the rating system, which I understand. I think it isn't quite common sense to have a rating that no one can get, so given that, my ratings were a bit skewed originally. They'd have to be rewritten; that's ok. Only, I was not the one to rewrite them.

Not only was I not the one to rewrite them (they were rewritten by my manager and our human resource manager), but not all of them were rewritten. Ok, nothing wrong with that.. surely not all of them needed to be rewritten. At least some of them had to be modest enough to pass.

Yesterday, I delivered a review to probably the nicest, most genuinely kind lady who works for me. It apparently was her lowest review in 30+ years with the company, by a sizable margin. She didn't even want to know the specifics of her score; the simple fact that she was merely Satisfactory Plus deflated her interest to know anything else about it. That broke my heart.

I didn't catch it at first, but hers was one of the reviews that was rewritten, because her original score was too high. I took a closer look at exactly which reviews were rewritten, and I was astonished. To understand why, let me first explain that not everyone is eligible for a pay increase. People who have been with the company for twelve months are eligible for a full increase, people who have been there six are eligible for half an increase, and people who are newer than six months are eligible for no increase. The amount of an increase is proportional to the overall rating an employee receives.

Every single review that was rewritten was for someone eligible for an increase, and after revision they all fell into the Satisfactory Plus category. This is astonishing, considering I still have reviews that fall well into the Excellent category. Notably, my employees who scored Excellent are too new to receive a pay increase.

How petty and ridiculous is that? The implication is that how high someone scores doesn't really matter, as long as they're not getting the increase to go with it. Corporate cost-cutting at its finest.

I can't wait to get out of that place. I feel my ethics and my pride in them dying every single day.

Mean green.

Lately I've been overcome with joy at my choice of lifestyle. I feel like a much more responsible citizen of this world than at least 75% of everyone else.

Tips I've come to pick up on in helping facilitate a cleaner, sustainable future:

• Buy a bike. This is non-negotiable. Bicycles are the most efficient form of transportation in terms of input-to-output ratio, and they are largely petroleum-free. But with the oncoming advent of plant-based lubricants and grease alternatives, they can soon be 100%. They will help you keep in shape. They don't rely on fossil fuels. I could go on and on about the benefits of bicycling, but that's another entry.


• Ride it! Staying fit is an important aspect of personal wellness, which helps promote smarter choices for society, the environment, and your intra/interpersonal relationships. Besides, driving a car ten blocks to wherever is totally pointless.


• If you have access to good public transportation, use it. Mass transit is much more resource-efficient than individual transit.


• If you haven't caught on to it by now, your driving habits should be minimal at best. If you can go car-free, then by all means, do it! If not, please drive intelligently. It is wasteful to accelerate faster than necessary. When I drive, I keep my RPMs under 3,000, which is less than half my car's potential. Minimize your drive time and maximize your gas mileage.


• Recycle! It's absolutely mesmerizing the amount of neighborhoods that offer recycling programs, given how infrequently their inhabitants take it seriously. Are you throwing away cardboard when it could be recycled? Paper? Plastic? Glass? If you can recycle these things, there's no reason for you not to. There are only excuses. Laziness has put us this far back, and it is one universal human trait that will be the end of us all.


• Check your thermostat. There's no need for it to be set higher than 70° during cold months or lower than 75 during hot months. If you can push yourself further, do it! Speaking of thermostats, if you can fare all right without air-conditioning, then don't invest in it. It is incredibly expensive and very detrimental to our power supplies (grid-wide power outages, anyone?).


• If nothing else, try your best to live lean. I'm not talking about diet (though, going back to personal wellness, you should be eating healthy, too). I'm talking about wastefulness. If you're not using a light, turn it off. Same goes for your computer, your TV, your radio, your fans, etc. The less you use, the less you waste. Limit your consumption only to what you need.


• Support local food markets and health food stores. The "health conscious" sector of the consumer market is growing, but it is still in its early stage. By buying organic products, not only are you making a conscious choice to contribute to a more progressive society, but you are helping spread the message to corporate giants that the old days of eating up every resource to squeeze ten bucks out of two pennies are coming to an end. There are many arguments to be made about multi-billion dollar corporations entering the health food market, but even if you are going to support giants like Silk or Boca or MorningStar (all of which are corporate subsidiaries) over lesser known, independent producers, you are helping the conscious consumer market grow, which is a good thing.


• Seek out and support politicians who are active in the environmental movement. Check their voting records. Check their agendas. The government is overrun with politicians, agencies, and other forums of power and influence who simply don't care about environmental issues for various reasons. Replacing these people with people who do is an important step toward empowering ourselves collectively to make real changes to wasteful policies and lax regulations.

That's a lot to list, I know. However, it's just the tip of the iceberg. One of the best things you can do is research energy alternatives and other methods people are using to live green, and then introduce them as much as possible into your life and the lives of those around you.

The earth is impermanent. It will one day be unsuitable for human life. Unfortunately, since the dawn of the industrial era of human civilization, that day has been accelerated exponentially. It is the responsibility and the duty of every single person living in this world—especially those of us in its most wasteful nations—to do his/her part to help reverse that trend.

Breed-specific legislation is a true evil.

Perpetrated by those who would rather eliminate a species because of its exceptions, and not its rule.

I will spare you the sappy captioned photos of babies with pit bulls, of dog lovers with their pit bull guardians and companions, of regular people with their pit bull pets. Because I don't think it requires that much pathos to trigger a sense of true and instinctive compassion.

And make no mistake about how I feel on this: if any of you PETA supporting hypocrites want to argue for the real value of breed-specific legislation, do it out of earshot of me, because I will rip you a new asshole on any argument you could hope to make. You need some perspective and an extremely unfortunate sense of irony and humility.

Friends, please be active and persuasive about this. If you hear someone bring up the topic, explain to him/her how euthanizing a pit bull for being a pit bull is like killing a Muslim for being a Muslim. It's the same thing. What flawed, shameful logic it is to marginalize every single pit bull who has never attacked anyone or anything to justify killing off the whole breed because of a social stigma attached to it by way of malicious human irresponsibility.

Punish the breeders.

Not the breed.

Beans & ethics.

I had heard awhile back that my coffeehouse of choice (the Ugly Mug) did not offer Fair Trade coffee, despite their passion for and attention to high quality coffee. This came to me as a sincere disappointment. And then I had heard that they did not support Fair Trade because their buying methods surpassed the Fair Trade standard, making it obsolete. I emailed them asking to clarify, and this, to my great delight, was their response, edited for punctuation and grammar:

We source our coffees from several locations. We buy from the farms when possible at higher rates than fair trade. We also work with a few select importers who own several farms themselves. Again, the farms are making their fair share. Our last source is from other roasters who have gone directly to the farm. We only buy sustainable coffees, and from time to time we buy Fair Trade. When we do our sourcing we are looking for the best beans available, therefore we are usually paying a heavy premium on the coffees and can guarantee nearly every farm we buy from is receiving above Fair Trade. Not only that, they aren't paying for the Fair Trade label, which is an expensive marketing label for a small farm. Also it tends to be that a lot of coffees with the Fair Trade label score lower scores in cupping reviews. Some farms use it so they can sell an inferior product. Another thing to know about the Fair Trade game is that there are often times that a broker will pay for the certification for the farm so that they can raise the price and make more money on it, [noting] as well that the farm owners are usually not the workers who pick the cherries. Often times they are picked by migrant workers, and so we have no way other than dealing with the farms to ensure that the workers are actually receiving fair pay. We have never said there is no such thing as FT; in fact we have a FTO Timor Maubesse in the shop right now. I hope you find this information useful.

Hearsay is just that, and for good reason. I am very proud of the Ugly Mug and their ethical coffee bean sourcing. If you live in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area, or are just visiting, please give them some business.

www.uglymugcafe.com