On Mar 6, 4:32*pm, Jeßus > wrote:
> On Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:17:12 -0500, "Jean B." > wrote:
> >Dave Smith wrote:
> >> On 04/03/2012 2:43 PM, Jeßus wrote:
>
> >>> Aside from general pollution concerns, when you have fake plastic rice
> >>> and eggs, melamine adulterated milk, bleached mushrooms, bean sprouts
> >>> grown with antibiotics, etc. all coming from the one place... well,
> >>> I'd rather just steer clear of any foods from there.
>
> >> I had a talk with the produce manager are our local grocery store and
> >> expressed my concerns about the increasing amount of Chinese produce
> >> they were stalking. His answer was that the Chinese have to eat too.I
> >> told him that I would not buy produce from China, and that if I had to
> >> go to a different store to get non-Chinese produce I would be getting
> >> all my groceries there.
>
> >Sounds like a good thing to voice. *I think it is crazy to become
> >more and more dependent on other countries for food--especially
> >basics, and especially China. *Also, how about foods that may
> >emanate from the area affected by Chernobyl, etc., etc.?
>
> Agreed, more people need to vote with their wallets and buy locally
> produced food from local businesses.
>
> That's what I do these days. Not doing this can only perpetuate the
> current trends. I know it gets hard for those on limited incomes to
> resist lower prices, but I often wonder just how hard they are really
> trying (not all of course).
>
> It's insane how product is shipped overseas, then comes back again to
> the state or country or origin. Not to mention the loss of local
> employment and infrastructure.

We have lost much work here. Arrow shirts, John Forsythe shirts, Huck
glove, many meat packers; the only one left is Schneiders, and it is
now only a distribution center, all of our rubber is gone, 3 Uniroyal
plants, BF Goodrich, Goodyear tire, textiles are gone, leather
tanning went a long time ago. but still in this region, the economy
is chirping along. you just need to be very skilled, and you'll make
out. having said that, the larger machine shops are/have been
restructured, and many metal workers are out of work. RIM, is not
doing so good, although it used to be primo. There was a time, when
you could get out of school with a grade 10 education, and make decent
money; about $25 in today's wages. not any more. Even RMS (an
independent arm of Uniroyal; they worked in conjunction with Uniroyal
tire on Strange street; Rubber Machinery Shops) has shut down. And
they had very skilled machinist/fitters working there. One of our
best automation tooling plants was going along very well. The owner
controlled the majority of shares (he started repairing dies in his
garage, and worked it up to a $100 million company) always made sure
that in bad times, his good workers never got laid off. Then he died,
and the bean counters took over. They started putting up communist
style banners all over the shop such as 'Every Day is a New Day', and
laid off the weekend shift, laid off the night shift, canned the
machine shop foreman (who brought much to the company) etc.