• idiomaddict@lemmy.world
    119·
    6 days ago

    Chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, tea, bananas, and a fuckload of other things that are completely integrated into our regular diets are almost exclusively imported.

    • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
      34·
      6 days ago

      Sugar too. That ain’t healthy and is kinda fancy but… Can you see them losing their shit over sugar prices? I do.

      Tomatoes imports were 2.5B in 2023.

      Apparently the us imports 15% of it’s food supply.

      • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        35·
        6 days ago

        That can’t be right. Corn can’t be only 85% of our food.

        But seriously, there’s so much goddamn corn. Our meat is fed corn. Our processed foods and drinks are pumped full of corn. Even our fucking cars eat corn. We’re up to our fucking ears in ears of corn.

        • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          6 days ago

          I understand your perspective but I want to ask a question, not to you, but for you to think about it. What motivation causes the imports?

          If corn syrup is a replacement for whatever they are doing, why are they importing raw sugar? If raw sugar is cheaper than you would expect them to already use sugar for everything and not corn syrup, and switching to corn syrup would be an increase in cost . If raw sugar costs the same, import is additional paperwork, why import? Raw sugar is more expensive, why would they pay more?

          Raw sugar can’t be replaced easily in their use case? Now that makes sense.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
            31·
            6 days ago

            Sugar tastes better than HFCS. Ask anyone who drinks Mexican Coke. “Tastes better” doesn’t matter when there’s no other option.

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            6 days ago

            Fact is, HFCS is cheaper. I haven’t checked the entirety of it’s supply chain to figure out why, but it is cheaper.

            If sugar was the same cost, they wouldn’t have switched to HFCS in the first place (why mess with your successful product for no gain?). Fact of the matter is that HFCS is saving them money. It might be pennies per bottle, but when you’re moving 10M bottles of soda, those pennies turn into dividends, literally.

      • RidderSport@feddit.org
        2·
        6 days ago

        Sugar is fancy now? Man my grandpa would be thrilled were he alive. There’s a colloquial term for the farm-houses of sugar beat farmers in Northern Germany, “beat castles”, as they quickly made a lot of money growing the beats in the late 19th century. When sugar became more accessible due to the processing of the beats to refined sugar. The wealth is long gone now, similarly to how salt used to be a luxury good.

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            6 days ago

            Technically, we don’t need raw sugar for our diet at all. So technically correct?

            We also don’t need any sugar substitutes, like HFCS, but you can find that or sugar, in the ingredients list of pretty much all processed foods.

            Yay capitalism!

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
      1·
      6 days ago

      A lot of fruit/veg is grown in places they can get away with slave wages and then shipped here because that’s how little labor costs. Less than our already super low paid fruit/veg pickers that are primarily the people who escaped the countries and situations that put them in those even lower slave wage places.

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
      131·
      6 days ago

      everything you’re wearing right now

      Much of that is cotton. I believe that in the “good” ol’ days the US grew that themselves. Start that industry up again, and you don’t need mass deportations across the border.

      • superkret@feddit.org
        20·
        6 days ago

        You could even run the farms the same way as in the olden days, if you criminalize and incarcarate enough black people.

        • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          6 days ago

          Well boy howdy, it turns out we already been done doin that there part about criminalizing and incarcerating them black people just out of sheer racism. You’re telling me that there could’ve been a profit motive to it this whole time too?

          jk, private contracted prisons were already profiting deeply off of that.

      • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
        7·
        6 days ago

        Ah, yes…

        All we need to keep that industry running like the good ol’ days is a massive industry of government subsidized illegal immigration of easily identified persons

      • Skyrmir@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 days ago

        The US still makes massive amounts of cotton. That all gets exported to other countries before getting turned into garments and things.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
        2·
        6 days ago

        Cotton takes a LOT of water to grow. And takes up farmland that could grow food.

        Most of your clothes are artificial fabrics these days. Or blended

    • Eiri@lemmy.ca
      8·
      6 days ago

      I wanted some foreign goods to get more expensive. To end slavery, not to escalate a trade war!

      I should have checked my vicinity for any stray monkey’s paws when I made that wish.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        5·
        6 days ago

        “Fair Trade” is what you’re looking for. I don’t know how legit all instances are or whether they make a real difference, but its an attempt

        • Ultraviolet@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          6 days ago

          This may sound pedantic, but you’re looking for Fairtrade (one word) for the organization with the strictest vetting standards. Fair Trade (two words) isn’t regulated and just means they follow some sort of ethical code. It’s not necessarily bad, but it warrants more product specific research.

  • CForsyth@lemmy.ca
    522·
    6 days ago

    Most competent governments think like this goose because their believe in rules based order and systems. Trump doesn’t ascribe to that view and I think he will make a sweeping change and will personally govern exceptions until it suits himself and his base. Hopefully that mangment consumes his time enough to make him less effective.

  • Liz@midwest.socialEnglish
    24·
    6 days ago

    People listing Hawaii like they could meet the total US demand, even if they could scale to maximum production overnight.

    Most of the corn we eat is Brazilian. Most of the corn we grow is feed corn for cows and process corn for HFCS and other processed food ingredients.

    • Johnmannesca@lemmy.world
      4·
      6 days ago

      As an American born and raised in Illinois I can also inform the rest of the populace our corn also gets used to make ethanol, an alternative fuel source.

    • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      6 days ago

      Im guessing they also never seen how much the coffee from there cost. Plus supply and demand you dumb fucks. The cost will skyrocket. Kona coffee ranges from $30 to $100 a bag. Think of a massive increase of demand. Are we going to pay $100 a bag for low end stuff?

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    20·
    6 days ago

    I’d bet they exempt it. The corporate grinder doesn’t really work without stimulants for the workers to purchase so they can work (and consume) more and sleep less.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
    121·
    6 days ago

    You think it’s going to be bad when people find out coffee prices are shooting up? Wait until they find out about chocolate.

  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlEnglish
    185·
    6 days ago

    Coffee :(

    Honestly though the coffee industry is really awful and I should probably stop drinking it