Voting with your wallet

Quick rant: So let me get this straight- I'm supposed to shell out $2,333 (that's $700 BILLION divided by ~300 million people) to prop up a bunch of businesses that played fast and loose with my debt? Fuck that. They can put up their own billions and buy their own asses out of the problem they created. If I made bad bets in the market no government money would be floating my way. If it's such a big deal, why isn't Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or any of the big bank CEOs putting their money on the line? Fuck these guys. They deserve to be paupers and their companies deserve to die to make way for smaller companies that will (at least for a few years) act responsibly.

Since everyone seems to have money on the brain, I've decided to use mine for good. I spend a lot of time trying to understand why people do what they do and trying to explain why it's often a bad idea. I rarely do anything to get involved though. You can call it cynicism, laziness, or a love of complaining. It goes by many names. But I've decided to do something. I'm going to start using the power of money and voting with my wallet.

I'm not talking about electing representatives based on economics. Under no circumstances should you EVER vote for a leader based on one issue, particularly when that issue is money. Far too many people do and it leads to very bad things (e.g. tax cuts for industry and the wealthy and lax oversight). But using your day to day purchasing power to make a point is a very good idea. It works like this: I'm going to minimize the amount of money I spend on products from companies that do stupid things. That way, my dollars do not end up in the hands of people that will only exploit them. I say minimize because sometimes you don't get a choice.

For starters, I'm buying my produce from a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm. This is a farm that sells locally, practices sustainable farming (no agribusiness, no chemicals, minimal shipping and handling, and good land-use practices like crop rotation), and places itself within the community instead of above it. For ~$20 a week, I will have in-season vegetables and fruits fresh off the vine or tree. And none of my money will go to support ground water contamination, soil erosion, government subsidized over-intensive water use (you think growing wheat in the desert is a good idea?), aquifer depletion, or food that tastes like diesel fuel and feels like rubber.

Further, I'll no longer be buying meat or eggs from grocery stores. Instead, I'll buy from ranchers that allow their animals true free range (not just 'access' which is all that's required now), feed their animals grass (not corn mixed with paper, antibiotics, and ground up leftovers of other animals), and process their animals on-site (instead of at a facility where profit takes precedence over sanitation and ethics). The fact that cows are shipped in large trucks where they shit all over each other before being turned into dinner is fucking ridiculous and repulsive. Feeding cows to cows is fucking stupid. Feeding chicken feathers to chickens, leftover manure to pigs, and jacking animals full of growth hormones are all repugnant practices that should offend far more people. I'm not a stereotypical tree-hugger or some left-wing animal rights activist. But Jesus Christ. These practices are damaging our environment, our health, and are treating these animals as something less than dirt. If you don't have respect for the things you eat, then you don't really have respect for yourself. Brillat-Savarin said it best- "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are". Apparently I'm feces, chicken feathers, high fructose corn syrup, bovine growth hormones, and pesticide. No wonder I had such a tough time with the ladies. Who wants to date that?

I'm also trying to keep the things I buy with high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, glucose syrup, and the other bajillion corn-derived products to a minimum. Corn does not belong in everything. Corn belongs in corn. And as ethanol for imbibing, not for driving.

Every dollar that goes toward well-tended crops and food animals is a dollar that doesn't support greedy, unethical, and inhumane practices. Will it cost more? Yes. But the food will taste better, be better for you, and will be better for managing the limited resources we have. It'll also keep my fat ass from eating so much. Remember- Price isn't everything and cheap food is cheap for a reason. Don't visit businesses that treat customers as second-class citizens (Best-Buy and Albertson's to name two) and be sure you know where your money is going. Minimize how much of it is ending up in the hands of lawyers, advertising firms, and people who have more wealth than sense. Of course, if you don't, I won't care. I'm not a proselytizer for any cause. I'm just tired of seeing my money used to support a system that is obviously deranged. My dollar is one less the agribusiness complex will have access to until they change their behavior.