… some friends and I have been discussing a monthly meetup where we exchange around food or other things we do, like handiwork. I wonder what’s involved in baking up a bunch of corn flakes that aren’t made of garbage? Maybe it’d be fun to have people over and figure it out. Mix up the recipe a little each month, or pass it around between the group members.
I’m not trying to shame you like this is obvious, but I have also been thinking about “how can I escape this corporate hellscape???” and this is starting to be more the direction I’m heading.
People have tried that before - every attempt at a utopian society has failed. e.g. perhaps someone will bring “homemade milk”, and after the 99th time people begin to relax and whoopsie forget to check it, then a large portion of the group gets exposed to a serious illness, maybe many die, the problems with communal actions get revealed.
Or else that person decides to get REALLY serious with their milk, and people decide to help chip in each week to defray the costs… and voila, capitalism is rediscovered!:-D
Though for the therapeutic benefits alone, it’s probably mostly worthwhile - and anyway I’m cynical and bitter so please don’t let that stop you:-). Probably the fact that you can see people’s faces that would be affected by everyone’s actions may make the difference?
I dunno if every human reducing their waste would make a “big” difference anymore, at this point. I mean, I do it anyway b/c it’s how I want to face the world, but I no longer have any expectations that it will affect any positive change - like even if every human being on the planet were to switch from individual cars to bicycles, how many oil spills would entirely counteract that - just one major one, maybe two more normal ones, or three “small” ones?
So I am not saying don’t do the communal stuff - go nuts! It probably really would be fun, and again therapeutic. But from a “managing expectations” standpoint, it is a personal hobby, not likely to have a realistic impact.
It’s probably worth giving a try - I usually bake my own bagels and that’s an economically reasonable activity… I’d be worried that cereal would be unreasonable to do without a dehydrator or other specialized equipment but there’s a lot of cook-ready food you could make. Pickled veggies and peppers are amazing, perogies or dumplings are easy to make in a freeze friendly manner, spaghetti sauce is insanely good vut usually doesn’t freeze well - that’s a classic example of a dish where it takes equal amounts of effort to prepare for two people or two dozen.
Cereal might not be the best but there are alternatives if you can get a group together… especially if you can cut across food cultures!
Small actions are possible.
I won’t buy Kellogg’s any more.
Who knows, maybe all the own brand cereal manufacturers are doing horrible things too.
But I find peace in taking some action when some awful thing is done. As otherwise, I’d just have to hang my head in hopelessness.
It’s not possible to boycott a brand over an action if every other brand is doing the same fucking thing.
… some friends and I have been discussing a monthly meetup where we exchange around food or other things we do, like handiwork. I wonder what’s involved in baking up a bunch of corn flakes that aren’t made of garbage? Maybe it’d be fun to have people over and figure it out. Mix up the recipe a little each month, or pass it around between the group members.
I’m not trying to shame you like this is obvious, but I have also been thinking about “how can I escape this corporate hellscape???” and this is starting to be more the direction I’m heading.
People have tried that before - every attempt at a utopian society has failed. e.g. perhaps someone will bring “homemade milk”, and after the 99th time people begin to relax and whoopsie forget to check it, then a large portion of the group gets exposed to a serious illness, maybe many die, the problems with communal actions get revealed.
Or else that person decides to get REALLY serious with their milk, and people decide to help chip in each week to defray the costs… and voila, capitalism is rediscovered!:-D
Though for the therapeutic benefits alone, it’s probably mostly worthwhile - and anyway I’m cynical and bitter so please don’t let that stop you:-). Probably the fact that you can see people’s faces that would be affected by everyone’s actions may make the difference?
You’re right, that’s pretty cynical.
It’s a bit like going “zero waste” or something. 1 person being completely zero waste, or being completely self sufficient, isn’t helping anything.
But everyone reducing their waste or being a bit self sufficient world make a big difference.
There are risks with communal groups, bit we’re better placed to navigate them than ever before.
I dunno if every human reducing their waste would make a “big” difference anymore, at this point. I mean, I do it anyway b/c it’s how I want to face the world, but I no longer have any expectations that it will affect any positive change - like even if every human being on the planet were to switch from individual cars to bicycles, how many oil spills would entirely counteract that - just one major one, maybe two more normal ones, or three “small” ones?
So I am not saying don’t do the communal stuff - go nuts! It probably really would be fun, and again therapeutic. But from a “managing expectations” standpoint, it is a personal hobby, not likely to have a realistic impact.
It’s probably worth giving a try - I usually bake my own bagels and that’s an economically reasonable activity… I’d be worried that cereal would be unreasonable to do without a dehydrator or other specialized equipment but there’s a lot of cook-ready food you could make. Pickled veggies and peppers are amazing, perogies or dumplings are easy to make in a freeze friendly manner, spaghetti sauce is insanely good vut usually doesn’t freeze well - that’s a classic example of a dish where it takes equal amounts of effort to prepare for two people or two dozen.
Cereal might not be the best but there are alternatives if you can get a group together… especially if you can cut across food cultures!
The corporations returned to oligopolism years ago. The government knows, and they’re complicit.
Small actions are possible.
I won’t buy Kellogg’s any more.
Who knows, maybe all the own brand cereal manufacturers are doing horrible things too.
But I find peace in taking some action when some awful thing is done. As otherwise, I’d just have to hang my head in hopelessness.