Half of the US government's financial assets are student loans

Re:Half of the US government's financial assets are student ... by adreamingsoul on Friday January 12, 2018 @05:20PM (#16136857)

Thanks. I agree with you about the fact that what I'm doing isn't a direct influence on the bigger issues. However, consumers play a major role in these larger issues.

For example, If we as a society would stop buying cheap food, it would force the hand of these industrial operations to change their behavior.

So I'm taking the time I have now to learn and improve my mentoring and educational skills when working with the local community. In addition to regulation, I also think it's critical that sustainable change occurs from our within society.

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Re:Half of the US government's financial assets are student ... by anigbrowl on Friday January 12, 2018 @08:46PM (#16137805)

If we as a society would stop buying cheap food

While voting with your wallet and trying to be a conscientious consumer is great, the asymmetry between ad=hoc networks of consumers pursuing smarter more sustainable choices and people who are directly invested in selling crap fora quick buck is huge. Since the large industrial concerns can spend a fortune on advertising and demand creation how exactly are you going to 'force their hand'? So far evidence suggests they often just create an additional line of healthier-seeming products at a higher price point that can be marketed to your demographic segment.

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Re:Half of the US government's financial assets are student ... by adreamingsoul on Sunday January 14, 2018 @11:49AM (#16144958)

In my opinion, the solution here is education. The illiteracy of food is a tremendous problem and can't be solved with regulation. Corporations can easily find a loop-hole in regulations that allow them in principle to achieve the same yield. The only way we are going to stop that is by educating consumers. If a vast majority of consumers read labels, research ingredients, and only bought from local farmers, we would force corporations to change from within. I believe this to be true and a model that works, because I live in an area that is currently undergoing this type of change.

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Re:Half of the US government's financial assets are student ... by anigbrowl on Sunday January 14, 2018 @06:30PM (#16147213)

We already have education, every food product in American has a clearly designed Nutrition Facts label and there are ongoing public information campaigns on the benefits of healthy eating.

Surely you have noticed that there are also people who systematically attempt to undermine such public education efforts. I think you might at least acknowledge their existence and the existence of advertising that attempts to bypass educational channels to sell crappy foods.

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