outsourcing

[abortretryfail]

I saw a great movie called Outsourced (anyone seen it?) last week and though it was primarily a comedy and if it had a message it was about cultural understanding and communication not about outsourcing, but the movie has made me think about outsourcing a lot. In general, I am a libertarian and I don't believe that borders should stop the free flow of money. On the other hand - I don' t feel that way about agriculture at all, all food should be grown locally, and I think there are limits to our human biology that the market cannot accomodate for. What are your thoughts/feelings on the matter?

[Preechr]

I heard that the Church's Chicken chain gets it's chicken from China. I have no idea if that's true, but if so, it's just amazing to me that it could somehow be cheaper to ship chicken around the world than it is to get it here. Chicken farming is really, really efficient. Just how cheaply can you do this? Just how cheaply should you do this?

Good topic. I think the reality of importing food should point us to some underlying problem with our local food systems. I don't think we should ban importation of food, but I do think it's problematic (other than fruits and stuff.)

[Big Papa Goat]

"I don' t feel that way about agriculture at all, all food should be grown locally, and I think there are limits to our human biology that the market cannot accomodate for."

Do you mean that human biology limits our ability to eat from far away places? I'm confused.

[AChimp]

How would a city like New York feed itself if everything was grown locally?

Large concentrations of people will always need to import food from outside. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years and it's one of the main reasons we aren't all still living in mud hut villages.

[El Blanco]

Outer Long Island, Central and Southern New Jersey and Upstate New York are primarily agricultural communities.

I think the economic system in the food production industry has to be looked at and probably overhauled. We're talking an industry more than twice the size of Big Oil and way more important, yet, they seem to get way more preferential treatment (subsidies and such) and not nearly the scrutiny and criticism.

Hell, they've got some suckers thinking they are a David vs Big Oil's Goliath when it comes to energy sources.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

The upstate agro industry is basically dead these days tho, still big, don't get me wrong. But not enough to provide NYC with all of its various wants and needs (unless they're interested in milk, apples and onions).

[Miss Modular]

My employer (based out of Rochester, NY) was recently the subject of protests by animal rights groups for caging their chickens.

The protesters seem to have won, for better or worse. My employer is closing their egg farm, and having their chickens/eggs supplied by an outside company...who, as it turns out, raise their chickens free range.

[abortretryfail]

Lemme bring up a point I've discussed with my Japanese friends living in the US... there are some staples of Japanese cuisine that just aren't produced/grown locally (or even nationally). What's the line between nature and culture? Do we give the cultural staple foods and adapt to locally fed diets, losing that perhaps treasured aspect of culture? Do we force assimilation? Or compromise, and buy everything locally, but order abroad for the natto? Or try to change local flora and fauna to meet the cultural standards one is used to (danger, danger!)? I read in the Hollywood Reporter (http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN0727588820071007) that they are making a TV show out of Outsourced - I hope they have each episode unravel an issue like this, with comedy... but I guess that's too much to ask for a basic network show.

[abortretryfail]

"I don' t feel that way about agriculture at all, all food should be grown locally, and I think there are limits to our human biology that the market cannot accomodate for."

Do you mean that human biology limits our ability to eat from far away places? I'm confused.

Yes, it does. For instance - food from very far away places is covered in bacteria we can't digest. The US government takes that food and irradiates it, by policy, before we eat it. That irradiation changes the nutritional makeup of the food.... this is a biological issue that has now been made political.