according to a recent Ipsos Canada study, the Buy Local movement is largely bolstered by older Canadians. Gen Z consumers, on the other hand, are almost six times more likely to switch to an American service such as a bank or telecommunications company, according to the survey.
Carleton University economics professor Frances Woolley noted more than a quarter of youth aged 25-34 are food insecure already. University of Victoria theatre student Samantha Frew said she has heard the calls to buy local. But she still tends to do most of her shopping at Walmart for financial reasons. She also struggles to figure out which companies are wholly Canadian.
“As much as it felt dystopian to go into the liquor store and see posters over all the American liquor, I was like ‘Oh, I wouldn’t have known that unless that poster was directly over it.‘ ”
In Montreal, National Theatre School student Owen Carter said they have boycotted corporations and products for other causes in the past, but cutting out all American goods is proving to be much more difficult.
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Prof. Woolley advises students trying to buy local to shop seasonally.
“Canada grows a lot of things in the summer, not so much in the winter,” Prof. Woolley said. “In winter that means eating things that keep like root vegetables and frozen food.”
She said buying locally does not have to be expensive. She referenced butternut squash and Canadian cabbage, two pieces of produce that can keep all winter and won’t break the bank.
I am disabled. Three kids under 12. We live in an economically depressed area. Our family income is less than half of what is considered extreme poverty for a single person in our province. Less than $20,000/year for a family of five. We are fortunate because our house is paid for and so is our 15 year old vehicle.
Do without. Change products. Buy frozen blueberries over a $6 package. Don’t eat blueberries. Eat in season. Look for local food producers. If you live in a city they’re literally everywhere and you’re being lazy. Rural, grow a garden. Pick your blueberries and freeze them for winter. Learn about food. There are many ways.
Quit being defeatist. Change is possible.
That’s the thing though. You own your vehicle and house. For those that don’t have a car, paying 100-180/month on transit and living in an apartment you can barely fit a couch in, let alone a deep freeze, bulk buying and storing when things are in season isn’t feasible.
The theme of the top comment is don’t be defeatist and you come in and reply with a defeatist comment. Your own comment history mentions having a Costco membership to buy laundry detergent. If you’re buying from Costco you are buying in bulk so who is your comment even for?
That’s all before we get to the disabled with family of 5 part you glanced over. Sure lots of people may not own their homes but most of them are not disabled supporting a good sized family either.
I wasn’t speaking about myself specifically, but good for you for snooping through my comment history so you can personally attack me I guess?
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing you made very challenging situations, that likely required a lot of sacrifice, work out enough to survive.
I’m pointing out that labeling everyone “defeatist” and telling them to boot strap, doesn’t change that for some, due to factors they have little or no control over, they cannot to do the same as you did. Or at the least would require differing solutions or some things like houselessness, to be addressed before they could use those solutions. N2m it’s the “I did so everyone else should be able too” is often just class warfare and a race to the bottom.
And when I didn’t I lived like this as well. It wasn’t that long ago I was paying a mortgage and car payment on less income because it’s recently risen. Still had those kids. Still was disabled. And our family income alone makes up for those expenses. 5 people on under 20 thousand a year.
Quit making excuses.
Not everyone is capable of making the same sacrifices you did.
Yea you’re right.
Lots of folks would probably rather let their freedoms be eroded by billionaire techno fascists until they are ruled by a dictator and his buddies and are no more than slaves to their whims. But they can still eat “fresh” blueberries…for now.
Do cars get free gasoline now? Why did nobody tell me!
Insurance, registration , oil changes, maintenance. Just rebuilt the rear end too cause salty roads and no one can afford a car now let alone us. Cars are free once you own them silly.
The house too. Just maintains itself. We didn’t need a new roof the past decade at all. The leaks were figments of our imaginations and the money was obviously there because we own our house. Oh and it’s not full of mold now either because of those leaks that we can’t afford to remediate so we just live in it. With our kids. But we own it so we’re obviously rich and can afford fucking blueberries.
That attitude is what made Boomers what they are.
Ok rant over. Fucking rots my ass.
The cost of transit is not equal to the cost of gas. To go to and from work every day by transit costs me $192 a month because a one-way transit ticket costs $4.80. No one I know is spending $192 on gas per month, not even close.
There are a lot of good counter-arguments to what you are replying to, but what you have chosen is not one of them.
I live in a rural area. Come visit me and see how much I spend on gas. Jump into someone else’s shoes for just half a second. It’s a minimum of $400/month and I DON’T WORK. Zero commute. If I did it would be considerably more. Hundreds more. Transit isn’t an option. The grocery store is 1/2 hour by car one way on the highway. The doctor is 20 minutes. I went to the ER with my kid yesterday because she got hurt. 1/2 hour one way on a 100 series highway. Unexpected travel…thats not in the budget. Something will have to give elsewhere. The closest town is 10km from our house and we live relatively close to town. School is a half hour…but there is a bus. My kids don’t get extracurricular though cause they don’t deserve it right? They’re just poor people after all.
That’s not to mention the rebuilt rear end this past winter and a new engine the winter previous because it’s 15 years old and falling apart around us. You know outside in the snow cause when you’re poor you do everything yourself. You call your buddies up to help yo, not drive to the mechanic.
Do you realize you sound just like my parents? Baby boomers who could give a fuck about anyone but themselves. Selfish. Unable to understand that not everyone is just like them. Unable to change in any way if it affects their lives even in the most minimum of ways.
So what you are telling me is that transit would cost you more than the gas as well because not only would you be paying for tickets, but you would have to have the handful of people in your rural community pay actual millions of dollars in taxes to build that infrastructure in the first place.
The point of my comment was to point out that the cost of gas is not always the same as the cost of transit, so it does not make for a great argument. That’s all. I never said this is the case for everyone everywhere. Stop jumping to conclusions and making up my thoughts in your head.
Do I realize that I sound like your parents? No I have not met your parents, so I wouldn’t realize that.
I like the piece here where you follow up “Jump into someone else’s shoes for just a half a second” with “based on a single comment I have read from you, without ever having met you, or even spoken to you beyond this, I am going to make the assumption that you only give a fuck about your self, are selfish, are unable to understand not everyone is like you, and are unable to change in any way”.
Kind of hypocritical to preach about sympathy and then immediately demonize someone based on a single comment. As a result I’m not finding much value in what you have to say, and to put an end to this immediately, because this is useless to the overall conversation, I’ll just block you. Recommend you do the same with me. Have a good one.
Hmmmm. I am the OP. This entire thread is about me and my lifestyle as per the original comment. Still stands. Selfish. I won’t block you though. Your opinions need challenge for others to see.