this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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Bananas are ridiculously cheap even up here in Canada, and they aren't grown anywhere near here. Yet a banana can grow, be harvested, be shipped, be stocked, and then be purchased by me for less than it'd cost to mail a letter across town. (Well, if I could buy a single banana maybe...or maybe that's not the best comparison, but I think you get my point)

Along the banana's journey, the farmer, the harvester, the shipper, the grocer, the clerk, and the cashier all (presumably) get paid. Yet a single banana is mere cents. If you didn't know any better, you might think a single banana should cost $10!

I'm presuming that this is because of some sort of exploitation somewhere down the line, or possibly loss-leading on the grocery store's side of things.

I'm wondering what other products like bananas are a lot cheaper than they "should" be (e.g., based on how far they have to travel, or how difficult they are to produce, or how much money we're saving "unethically").

I've heard that this applies to coffee and chocolate to varying extents, but I'm not certain.

Anyone know any others?

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Even if the cow is responsibly raised, there's still the question of how it was conceived. No farmer simply let's a bull on top of a cow, since our modern cows are too big to safely mate. So usually a cow is artificially inseminated, which is an inherently violent procedure. The milk industry could simply not exist without this institutionalized rape

[–] Slowy 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That’s only really true in dairy. Most meat cows are conceived using ‘natural cover’, where several bulls are just left with the ladies to do their thing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Their method isn't perfect, but taking steps is a good thing, imo

[–] JJROKCZ 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As you said, they can’t mate… so what’s your solution? Let them go extinct and we lose not only a beautiful creature but a significant part of our species food source and history? We’ve been drinking milk and eating beef since the dawn of animal husbandry

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Wait you're saying it's better to be genetically experimented on, caged, forced to breed, and be killed in your early adulthood than not have children?

That's it's actually more ethical to make a creature who you later kill for your own pleasure than not to do that? because the alternative is only wild cows and cowlike creatures existing?

They're living beings, not museum exhibits ffs. Species don't have preferences, individuals do.

[–] JJROKCZ -2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Point out the wild bovine to me bruh, they don’t exist, they’re one of the many species dépendant upon humans for their survival.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] JubilantJaguar 4 points 11 months ago

Very frustrating to argue with people who claim to have no concern for living creatures when in fact they probably love their dog or cat and would find it just as hard as anyone else to watch a video of what goes on in factory farms. Food choices are such a fundamental part of human culture that most people just cannot stand having them questioned, it's as if you are questioning their religion. Alas.

[–] federatingIsTooHard -4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

artificial insemination isn't rape. it's a veterinary procedure

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If I artificially inseminated you would you feel raped?

[–] federatingIsTooHard 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not a cow and I somehow doubt you are a veterinarian

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So it would be abhorrent right? What makes it ok to do to a cow then? Is it the prop stethoscope? the certificate of graduation on the wall? Do cows just not matter? if so why not?

[–] federatingIsTooHard -4 points 11 months ago

if you have something to say, say it. what I said is true.