I get a lot of flack from people about the way I eat and my refusal to shop at Wal Mart. My own sister thinks I'm nuts! Most people make their comments in jest, and I am totally able to banter back. I don't take offense at all. But, sometimes the comments get me thinking. Today I took a semi-long run (6.1 miles), which gave me plenty of time to think. I enjoy having something to toss around in my head while running, so I was grateful for today's adversaries! :)
The reasons I refuse to shop at Wal Mart, why I try to buy local goods, organic produce and free range meats are multi-faceted. Yes, to a small degree it has to do with health, but that is not the main propagator. While it's true that I have deep seated issues involving my weight, weight actually has little influence on my opinions about the food I purchase and the corporations I support. Truly, the ultimate, and rather complex, impetus behind my decisions boils down to one word: ethics.
If you have not yet watched "Food Inc" or "Wal Mart, The High Cost of Low Prices," I beg, beg, beg you to do so. Both of these documentaries have greatly influenced my views on big business, business ethics, food production and farming, sex discrimination and illegal immigration. You see, it goes well beyond not overloading your body with pesticides. In fact, that is really just the tip of the iceberg.
People need one another. We can empower one another or break each other. More often than not, I see us tipping the scales in favor of self-service rather than communal good. That's a broad statement, and really, I am talking about a lot of things. Every day, I see people who back stab one another to get ahead in their jobs. I see parents who belittle each other to gain control of the kids. I see people who lie, cheat and steal for many reasons. I see politics play out in schools where the parents who have the most money have the most say in school decisions. I see all kinds of issues that boil down to a few core principles: money, power, corruption, greed and the selfish exploitation of others to suit our own needs, long standing human flaws.
It is this same corruption happening at the corporate level that is breaking apart our country slowly and surely. My son Jacob understood perfectly when he was 4 years old and he told the director of Harbor House, "When you shop at Wal Mart, you give Wal Mart money and take business away from the little stores. Then the people who work at the little stores will lose their jobs." He didn't just tell Gary, he told anyone and everyone who even mentioned "Wal Mart." He was devastated when he found out my mother shopped at Wal Mart. If a 4 year old can get it, why can't we all? Well, because it's very complex. There's a major abuse of power at play.
This is how I see it: It's small town America, maybe Hollidaysburg. People there may not be poverty stricken, but they are not all rolling in money either. They support one another. They shop at the farmer's market. They get their tools from Joe, the local hardware store owner. They meet at the local cafe on Main Street for coffee with friends, and stop at the post office on the way to lunch. They have a historic society, and a borough council. How nice!
Then big, rich Wal Mart comes into the town. Wal Mart says, "Hey, we can sell you the exact same tools as Joe, at half the cost!"
"Well," everyone thinks, "It won't hurt if I get my tools at Wal Mart. I can save so much money!" Then slowly, one by one, patronage at Joe's shop dwindles. Eventually, he has to close the business that has been in his family for 65 years. Everyone now shops at Wal Mart, thinking they are getting a deal. It stinks for Joe, but only Joe and his family has been hurt here, right? He'll find something else. Little do they know that Wal Mart has actually been slowing increasing the prices of those cheap tools they hooked everyone on in the first place, so that the people would not notice. Eventually, the town folk are paying the same amount that they would have paid at Joe's for tools that are of lesser quality, because they have been manufactured by children in China (and no, that's not a joke). Now who has been hurt? Well, Joe, his family, the people of Hollidaysburg, and all of those children in China who have been exploited. What about the factory workers here who lost contracts because Wal Mart decided to outsource?
Oh, and don't tell me that Wal Mart employs so many people that they are surely giving back to the economy. Wal Mart employs hundreds of thousands of people at just under full time so that they do not have to provide health benefits for their workers. Of all of the US corporations, Wal Mart is responsible for having more employees seeking public assistance than any other business. Not only that, Wal Mart has more lawsuits against it for race and sex discrimination than any other company as well. You're a young woman working at Wal Mart. You would like to move into management to help support your family. Tough cookies, sister. Not gonna happen. Even less likely if you are black. And forget about any employment at all if you try to start or join a union. Don't believe me? Watch the documentary. Do some research on your own. Wal Mart is evil.
How does Wal Mart fare for charitable contributions? They have all those commercials saying how much they care about their communities. Their employees donate tons out of their own paychecks. Many of Wal Mart's charitable contributions do not come from the corporate office, but rather from the employee's pockets - the same employees who need public assistance to get medical care and buy their groceries. How are you feeling about Wal Mart now? Don't you wish you had continued to shop at Joe's? Don't you wish Wal Mart never reared it's ugly head in the first place?
These examples are just scratching the surface. I am wordy enough, and I am choosing to stop the Wal Mart rant at this point, but do you understand a little better now? It's about ethics. It's about how we treat one another. You yourself may not subscribe to this belief system. You may never treat another person with such callous disregard. You are still supporting the business and its lack of ethics with every single purchase you make. At one point in "Food Inc" the narrator says something like, "every time you scan an item at the cash register, you cast your vote." You can kid yourself, but really, no purchase is innocent. Who are you voting for? Still think you can't afford to stop shopping at Wal Mart? Think hard about it, and honestly tell me how on earth you can afford to
continue shopping there?
It's the same principle that drives my desires to buy organic produce and free range eggs and meats. Yes, I care about what is going into my mouth, but I care more about how that animal was treated before it got to my plate. I'm not a vegetarian. I don't plan to become one. I believe that we are to eat animals. Our bodies need animal protein to be healthy. I don't believe, however, that animals were meant to be disrespected, maltreated and abused solely for our benefit. These creatures have put down their lives for our benefit. The very least we can do is treat them humanely before they die, and respect their remains once they are gone.
Chickens were not created to be crammed by the thousands in dark, hot quarters, surrounded by dead peers, so fat that they are unable to support their own body weight. I'm sorry. There is absolutely no way you can look at that footage and feel OK about buying chicken from Tyson or Perdue. It is a blatant disregard for life. Complete greed and utter disrespect not only to those chickens, but also to their Creator.
Not only is it a disservice to God and the chickens, but also to the farmers who care for them. These men and women have been cornered into taking out loans, building huge shelters, going into massive debt in order to meet the company's standards and then paid a pittance. If the companies find one thing to their disliking, the farmers are cut off, with no way of fighting back. No way of fighting because the very government that rules this country is filled with corruption - men and women who have shares in these businesses - Tyson, Perdue, you name it. They won't back any bills to support the little guys. The business have all the power, all the money and the little farmers have no means to hire lawyers who could even begin to take on the massive corruption that lies in congress.
It's not just chickens, either. It's all meat. And it happens with vegetables too, especially corn. There are all kinds of seed laws, and laws against crops that catch farmers in ridiculous binds. There are ridiculous laws regarding genetically modified crops, and absurd atrocities that come from the subsidisation of corn. Corn subsidies alone are the cause of so many problems from low incomes to e.coli in cattle. Watch the video. Do some research. People are losing their livelihood. Their families are endangered, and they are helpless.
Think I'm done? I'm not. Some of the meat processing plants actually recruit desperate citizens of Mexico to work illegally in the US. They bring them across the boarder, set the immigrants up in trailers, even bring their whole family along. Everything seems to be going well, even though these workers are making a pittance and having all kinds of health problems because of unsanitary work conditions. That's the least of their worries, because sooner or later, the company rats out the workers. That's right. The companies have deals with government officials. The company agrees to rat out several workers every so often, in exchange for not being prosecuted by the government for illegal employment. The government rounds up and deports these people, and the company in the meantime has already recruited another dozen workers from somewhere else across the boarder.
It's bad. This country is in a very poor state right now. We are not heading in a positive direction. We are corrupt, greedy, and callous. It doesn't have to be that way, though. I'm not crazy. I know that I cannot save the world, but I can do my best to live up to my own standards of integrity. I can teach my children how to live with gratitude as well. What if we all said, "I can't help. I'm just a drop in the bucket." Pretty hopeless, isn't it? Now, what if we all said, "I can help. My drop, along with my friends' and my family's drops will overflow the bucket for the good." It takes effort from everyone, and no amount of effort is too small.
Can't afford organic? You would be able to if everyone else bought it too. It's more expensive, at least in part, because there's less demand for it. Start slowly, buy organic only when it's on sale, or pick one or two items from the "dirty dozen" list and buy those (go here, if you don't know what the dirty dozen are:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods). Check out some local butchers or farmers. We get our ground meat for $4 a pound, not much more than you are paying, I bet. We get our eggs from a local farmer who has happy chickens, doing happy chicken things, for LESS than store bought eggs, at $1.50 a dozen. Do some research. Buy your milk from a local dairy. Support your local economy. It's not always more expensive, but it is always more beneficial. Don't be a thoughtless consumer. Eat thoughtfully, shop thoughtfully. Think before you buy. Which way are you casting your vote?
If you can't rent the whole videos (you should), at least watch these clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enwU5jIXSlU - a chicken farmer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQVll-MP3I&feature=related - trailer, Food Inc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wZBk1Hjl60 - WalMart's poor employees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSmlmXp-aU&feature=relmfu - Wal Mart trailer
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!
Spending quality time with Aunt Velda...wondering which watch really has the right time! (She had Alzheimer's and wore something like 6 watches every day!) This is one of the few photos of me where I can see a resemblance to Andrew. Maybe he is mine, after all!
Me & my "Super Mom!"
"Uh, Jackie, let's get to cutting that cake!"
Gram with me, and my grandfather with my cousin, Ian. I used to take long naps with Gram every afternoon on that couch. Seeing its crazy print brings back sweet memories!
"Pap, I think I'm allergic to that hat. Here come's another sneeze!"
Making sandcastles with my favorite person in the whole wide world.
Gram, doing one of her favorite things (and mine too, these days!), eating sweets!
Pap and me, just passing the time.
Ian and I were best buddies as small children, that is, until he tried to strangle me.
Me & Mom at the Penn State Altoona Campus reflecting pond.
So young...both of us, contemplating the world ahead.
My grandparents and my great grandmother, Bernadine.
My cousin Corky, who just passed away, and my aunt Carmen. They were in a commercial for a local furniture store.
Carmen is on the left, and Corky on the right. The photos with Carmen were in the newspaper, and ones with Corky were on local TV. Don't they just look very 50's chic? I love these pictures, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to get them, and talk to Carmen about them. Of all the things I keep, photos are by far the most valuable, in my opinion. But, I guess anyone who knows me and my penchant for photography, already knew that. 
