Last trip to the grocery store I couldn’t find any non-US salad kits, and Silk NextMilk is made down there now, because I guess our plants were the listeria ones. Chip dip was surprisingly hard to find too, although I did it.
I’m very pleased with how many vegetables actually come from Mexico (definitely via the US though), and there’s even a few things you can get from greenhouses, so that situation is less dire than I’d expected.
Didn’t buy anything american this week, at all, but I’m due to go grocery shopping.
I’m making a pot pie from some leftover beef and bacon fat that I turned into roux, I’ve got some potatoes that are getting old, some carrots, mushrooms… it should be tasty
Excellent grocery shopping today. We didn’t buy anything US (we think). The red cabbage didn’t have any country listed and we assumed it’s Mexican since the green ones were. We didn’t have to switch lots but for some products we bought alternatives: taco shells, granola bars, salsa. We also found some Canadian stuff sold out or almost: ketchup, cereal (we picked a different Canadian one). It’s fun to try new stuff! Also really excited about tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce and basil from Alberta! This is very early in the year for us to get local produce!
The other day I took my German car to the Asian market to pick up curry ingredients and enjoyed the night watching the Red Green show sooooooo…pretty great honestly. 👍
I’m American, and not buying American has been the norm for decades. So far, it’s working out pretty well.
Last year I moved from Ontario to Spain so avoiding American products has been pretty easy at the grocery store. The main thing has been cancelling online American services like Netflix, Amazon, Google one, Youtube Premium, etc.
https://www.simplehomelab.com/docker-media-server-2024/
It’s a little daunting but once you get it up and running with a VPN, you’ll never miss those enshitified streaming services.
Cancel them, but don’t stop watching American stuff you like. Just don’t pay for it.
This is the way 🏴☠️
As an American, pretty good, we don’t produce shit here.
That’s a lie. We produce the highest quality bullshit in the world.
It’s clearly a salad kit-based economy. /s
Signed up for the Odd Bunch. You get imperfect produce which is still perfectly edible delivered all from local producers. Like a CSA share. It actually ends up being less expensive than the store. You’ll have to be creative in using it up, but it’s a great option. Link: https://go.referralcandy.com/share/9TSC9RD?s=sp&t=cp
Wonder if there’s a version of this from the states.
Looks like this is: https://www.imperfectfoods.com/
I am also a subscriber. While some of the produce still comes from the US, I think it reduces our dependence by reducing waste. It is cheaper than the super market but still more expensive than the local grocers here in Vancouver.
I don’t mind supporting small farms in the US or buying their imperfect produce so it doesn’t get wasted.
Killed all social media outside the fediverse. Even for our small business. Dumped Amazon and looking into Linux to drop Microsoft too. Degoogling the phone. We’re pretty good at the grocery store because we grow a lot of our own and make what we can.
Mastodon is free, might be better than going totally off grid for your business.
The audience is smaller than twitter was, but if you find a niche the people are quite nice
Even for our small business.
Damn, that’s next level commitment! I’ve gotten rid of everything personally, but giving up on my income source being easy to find would scare me.
Also, RIP DivestOS. Still sad about that.
Fuck em. We will manage. They can eat a bag of dicks. If I could eliminate all American influence from our lives I would.
If you have a pixel phone then GrapheneOS is a solid choice.
If you’re up for a challenge try Ubuntu Touch, Mobian, Sailfish and Postmarket OS!
I’m interested in moving off Android but afraid of bricking my phone. Years ago I had flashed roms onto my galaxy s4 but these days I worry about not being able to get work calls if something goes wrong. How risky is it these days, also is there anything I should know ahead of time if I try to move to a linux os. Do they work well on cheaper phones?
Years ago I had flashed roms onto my galaxy s4 but these days I worry about not being able to get work calls if something goes wrong.
There are still issues with calling however I would say Ubuntu Touch has the best support that front as it is the most stable. It should be fine installing when following an official guide from that distro.
I should know ahead of time if I try to move to a linux os.
The cellular connectivity has issues and the apps are limited.
Do they work well on cheaper phones?
It really depends on how well the phone model is supported by the contributors. They have lists of their most supported phones that you can look at.
Thanks for the info! Going to say cheap phone, possible cellular connectivity issues might not be a good idea for me right yet. I’ll put it on the to do with next phone list. I sometimes do Instacart deliveries to supplement income when I accidentally splurge to much. Not having cellular in remote areas would mean I couldn’t work directions/electronic signatures for alcohol.
Not having cellular in remote areas would mean I couldn’t work directions.
The open-source efficient Organic Maps can help with that.
Your job sounds really cool! Seeing all the beautiful countryside!
Yeah my normal job is in Nashville. Instacart is what I was talking about on the side. Basically it is just picking up stuff for people like groceries and hardware stores and dropping it off. Mostly it’s Kroger for me, grab 25 items, drop it off at their house and make a few extra dollars. Usually can make $100 on my day off doing that for 5 hours or so. You know how far the trips are before you take them so if you want further drives you can do them but you are paying for gas so usually I only take farther ones when they are for decent money amounts. I have taken some that are 30 miles into the middle of nowheresville. I’ve actually delivered to an Amish community as well.
Not much changed for me personally, I already mostly buy local.
Btw if you really want to hurt america see if you can modify your rrsp/resp/tfsa/<other 4 letter acronym> to exclude American companies (and O&G while your at it). It’s hard and probably not good from a purely financial perspective, but I think it has a lot more impact.
Already did it! And boy, was I glad I had when Trump started doing things.
VEU is one example ETF on the TSX.
I’m disabled. Also petition your government leaders to divest CPP from American companies and investment firms.
Very disappointed to hear Silk NextMilk is made in America. Other plant based milks just aren’t the same. Have you found a good alternative?
I tried the Good Earth oat-coconut blend. No bones, don’t recommend as of now. Honestly if that’s the brand I’m going back to just oat.
Earth’s Own is Canadian and really good.
I buy Earth Own oatmilk but it’s just not as good with cereal :(
NextMilk is a mixture of different plant based milks. Its probably the closest to real milk but I find any brand of original (some sweetener but no extra flavoring e.g. vanilla) oat milk to be close enough that I don’t miss cow milk much.
Next milk is a Silk product
I know. 😕
NotMilk, it is quite milk like. And company is from Chile.
Have u tried making peanut milk at home? It doesn’t take more than 10 min and is incredibly underrated.
Considering how much stuff isn’t made in the US anymore, this should be easy. For a real challenge, try avoiding items made in China.
Hmm, I’m actually curious. SE Asia and Bangladesh probably are a viable alternative for a lot of things. Obviously, if you have an unlimited budget you can find some bespoke artisanal item made nearer by as well.
That’ll go about as well as reading the TOS on everything before clicking agree
sorry to butt in but that’s a hobby of mine 😀
for example going full renewables: solar panels made in south korea (qcells), battery german (sonnen), ev south korea (hyundai ioniq), heat pump australia/japan (reclaim energy)
I’m now looking at computer parts made exclusively in taiwan (looks like gigabyte mainly) because europe appears to have 0 competitive chip makers
it seems you can still buy bigger items that are local or non-china made but you will be punished for it, prices are anywhere from 10% to 100% higher
I’ve never heard of Reclaim… How is that heat pump treating you? We got a Bryant (I believe it’s a Midea rebadged) and our solar is a Sol-Ark inverter (I still need to figure out how to get it off WiFi and just local using CANbus…) and LONGi panels.
Yep sorry I’m in Aus not Canada, they’re a local manufacturer (https://reclaimenergy.com.au/), expensive as hell but felt like showing my support to at least one of the few places this still does engineering in Australia
How is that heat pump treating you
Really good! the separate compressor from the tank makes it whisper quiet, can barely hear it even if you’re a foot away, co2 which is the most environment friendly refrigerant, and power usage is well, minimal, only a small 160L tank because I live by myself, can see example of what it uses here (it’s the light blue bit at around 8am in the morning):
That said it is summer here in Queensland, will have to see how it goes in winter but under 1kw a day for hot water, that’s really not bad at all imo
I went to buy a pair of scissors this week. I could not find a pair that wasn’t made in China.
I went to buy a greeting card, 75% of them were made in China. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s a freaking happy birthday card. There is no way it’s cheaper to cut down the tree, mill the paper, send it to China on a boat, have it printed, then have it sent back to North America on another boat. WTF?
Sorry to chime in as an American, but I usually found that you can get the small items but they cost much more.
Do you have access to German scissors? Brands would be zwilling solingen and three swords.
Stickers can be locally made but you can’t get 100 for $2 like the made in china sets.
In the USA I find it challenging to find us made versions of the items.
I hope you are able to find domestic versions of the items you are looking for . It’s a great way to show you care for your fellow countrymen.
Staples has online card building, you can customize all of it if you want, and it was about $2.50. Just have to plan ahead because they often print it at another facility and use the interstore shipping to get it to your pickup store.
yep small items i’ve pretty much given up on, nobody seems to care that $2 worth of stickers are made in China
It just keeps going though, weirdest one for me was those little marshmallows you put on cakes:
Coles Bake and Create Pink and White Mallows, 100g. Great for creating a delicious rocky road or topping hot drinks.
Made in China
https://www.coles.com.au/product/coles-mallows-pink-and-white-100g-2441652
Really???
Most of my groceries accidentally end up being nearly all Canadian products.
I haven’t really needed to buy anything other than groceries this past week, but I have been looking for alternatives to other products I’ll eventually need, and I will make buying Canadian first a priority, followed by Not American™ as a close second. 😂
Yeah, same. Aside from the products I mentioned it wasn’t hard at all. I had to take a bit of extra care with canned fruit, I guess.
American software dominance is pretty out of control. If you don’t want to use American streaming, you pretty much have to go to piracy instead, and if you want to talk to IRL people online US social media is the main game in town. Not to mention the internet backbone itself being centered in the US.
For online shopping, you can go Chinese. I need to look into if there’s any non-US Western options.
Sailing the Seven Seas is definitely the best way to do streaming.
US social media is increasingly right-leaning and bot-dominated, so you’re not really missing out there.
Online shopping is awful.
At this point, I’m hoping for the Giant Meteor.
Great until I went into Dollarama and bought an energy drink and now I need to get two gifts for 6 year olds. Most likely at Walmart 🤦🏼
We bake cookies as kids gifts. We never buy stuff. They chomp the cookies down and the next year ask if we brought them again.
I’m American and I’d rather buy Canadian too
I’m American and I’d rather be Canadian, too. Best I can do is Mexican and that’s looking better every day.
We should probably get out before they close the borders for us too
I’m joining the war on Canada… on the side of Canada. 🇨🇦
Then we shall turn this continent into an orgy of maple syrup!
It’s generally going well. I already did this boycott once before during Trump 1.0, so I know what do look for.
It’s a bit harder this time around because there are things we need where a Canadian (or at least non-American) alternative doesn’t exist. The big one is diapers, as we haven’t been able to find anything non-American that also works within our budget and time constraints.
It’s unfortunate, but also only temporary. My kids should be out of diapers in a few years, provided the world doesn’t end before then.
Contact your local store to order https://www.royale.ca/diapers Made in New Brunswick.
I’ll do some research today to see if they are available where I live, or if they can be made so. Thanks for the tip.
No cloth diapers in Canada?
There are, but they aren’t feasible for us to use. We would love to, and even discussed it before our first kid was born, but the realities of our lives make them impractical.
Ah. I used a diaper service for my kid and it was pretty handy. Then again, that was 30 years ago and everything was much more affordable.
We had a few in diapers at the same time, reusable ones with washable liners are the way to go. It means carrying a container till you get home to handle a dirty diaper, but the cost savings alone meant less working hours.
