This pineapple is from Costa Rica. Got me thinking about how much of my composting material comes from the Southern Hemisphere and how I am basically transferring fertile soil from 3rd world nations to my back yard in the same way that imperialists have stolen resources for centuries. Hmmmm... Stolen dirt. Ok, so right now you are thinking - this guy's nuts! And you might be right, but...let's think about it anyway. How many billions of pounds of Starbucks coffee grounds are sent to the US and Europe each year? And that is just one company...and just one product. Now think about all the bananas, apples, everything that is sent north from southern hemispheric countries. Yup - systematic soil transfer - south to north. Could be the biggest undiscussed exploitation going on right now.
You ain't crazy man, those are excellent points. Even if people in the "global south" are purportedly "free" trading with the U.S. it does not make the soil transfer problem go away. And with a lack of parity among country's labor and environmental regulations, there is little doubt that the trading is free. For example, when minimum wages are different across countries there are likely to be millions of people working for different minimum wages (and America's minimum is higher than most of it southern trading partners, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country).
ReplyDeleteSo it would be quite interesting to hear the convoluted argument from free-marketers and others who justify this kind of transfer by saying something like, "They chose to do it." Through a complicated, colonial, and convoluted history some countries have "chosen" to make minimum wages and minimum standards of living different than other countries. If this history wasn't so complicated, colonial, and convoluted it might make sense to say that it is a choice of minimum wage farmers in Costa Rica to make $1.79/hour while American minimum wage farmers make $7.25/hour. But alas, the redistribution of soil (and wealth and a number of other raw materials and goods) likely continues the trajectory of colonialism.
Is the soil redistribution a major problem? Maybe, maybe not. But it certainly seems to be a problem that merits attention, because it is a combination of many problems that continues America's dominance over others.