usernamesAreTricky

joined 2 years ago
[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Interestingly enough, appliance makers actually have historically pushed against this

The companies urged the administration to preserve the program, which certifies appliances as meeting high efficiency standards, after CNN first reported on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency planned to eliminate the Energy Star program as part of a massive restructuring.

[...]

The program is so popular that appliance companies and trade associations, including General Electric and the American Gas Association, have historically lobbied for the program to be preserved every time there is a proposed challenge to its budget or its function. Trump proposed eliminating the program in a 2017 budget and drew immediate widespread industry condemnation at the time.

https://www.notus.org/energy/epa-energy-star-program-appliances-pushback

(https://archive.is/gAcEM)

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Eh, I'm not sure I'd call it so unambiguously correct. Is it understandable, certainly, but this is fear he wants us to have so that people don't fight back. This is what the part about complying in advance is all about. Things won't get better if everyone or most people cower before he acts

He wants people to not act so that he can bulldoze through. We need people to be brave and to stand up against fear. Fear is contagious - just as courage is

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago

Fish farms are not the environmental win they claim themselves to be. They can sometimes actually make things worse because they'll often take wild caught fish as feed too!

The sheer quantity of wild fish used in salmon farms is also a growing concern. About a fifth of the world’s annual wild fish catch, amounting to about 18m tonnes of wild fish a year, is used to make fishmeal and fish oil, of which about 70% goes to fish farms

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/11/global-salmon-farming-harming-marine-life-and-costing-billions-in-damage

Environmental impact is not limited to salmon farming either. All kinds of fish farms dumps large amounts of waste into the environment

For a world annual shrimp production [in fish farms] of around 5 million tons, 5.5 million tons of organic matter, 360,000 tons of nitrogen, and 125,000 tons of phosphorous are annually discharged to the environment https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353277/

They can also drive deforestation in some parts of the world too

Conversion to aquaculture is the most prevalent driver of mangrove deforestation across the tropics over the last 50 years generating substantial carbon emissions. Preventing further aquaculture expansion within mangrove forest areas will be essential to achieve national emission reduction targets in mangrove-holding countries.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.14774

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

To get anything close to what that used to look like would take massive reductions in consumption and production across the board. Not just shifting what type of fish people eat. Having a lot, lot less of it overall

It's not just a higher population. Per capita consumption of fish has gone up quite a bit in the past decades, though has leveled off

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ah wasn't 100% sure if that was a metaphor for the chicken's brutal living conditions, or about the human slave labor in the egg industry

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Don't worry, they've already got the prison slave labor part down

At the O.B Ellis Unit in Huntsville, Texas, prisoners manage an egg farm, farrow pigs and even maintain a parakeet aviary. Colorado Correctional Industries is a major producer of buffalo mozzarella — cheese produced by inmates there has made its way to popular chains like Papa John’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s.

[...]

In 2021, Arizona Correctional Industries leased 92 workers to Hickman Family Farms, the largest egg company in the Southwest. According to ACI, Hickman Family Farms had struggled to retain workers willing to labor in what the company describes as admittedly “dirty” conditions. Thanks to this partnership, which generates over $7 million dollars a year in revenue for the state prison system, Hickman now has ample access to “motivated workers that can be relied upon to be at work on time” and who receive no paid vacation or sick leave.

Factory Farms Are Sourcing Their Cheap Labor From Prisons

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yep, all of them already do - including standard plant-milks! Have baked plenty with oatmilk and soymilk before and gotten great results with no issues. Had others try what I had made and they had no idea there was anything substituted. It's a one to one substitution too

Also can sub stuff like buttermilk too. Use a plant-milk and add something acidic (lemon juice, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, etc). Can look up plant-based buttermilks recipes to find the ratios here

You can sometimes even just use water in some recipes that only call for a small amount of milk too. Though that is less reliable than using plant-milks


If you're not super familiar with using plant milks, I will note that coconut milk specifically has a very strong flavor which can change the overall flavor. This unlike almost all the other mainstream plant milks which don't really noticeably change the flavor when baking. I tend to only use coconut milk when a recipe calls for it specifically or you can lookup recipes that use it if you are inclined

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Non-animal whey is already a thing you can get in products in stores today! Perfect Day is the main company I am aware of doing that. They use precision fermentation to do so. https://perfectday.com/made-with-perfect-day/

There are also groups working to do non-animal casein which is the protein in dairy-based cheeses that gives cheese most of its important replicate properties

Or you can also just go with other plant milks like oat milk, pea milk, soy milk, etc. Some types like pea-based plant milks emulate dairy milk better than others if that is what you are looking for

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 33 points 4 weeks ago

Aside about Rwanda - not only are they another dictatorial country, but they are also heavily backing the M23 militia in the DRC who have been committing some pretty horrible war crimes. Rwanda claims they aren't tied to M23 at all, yet things have been happening like Rwanda suddenly exporting resources that it doesn't have (that do exist within the DRC)

The war in the DRC has substantially less attention in the west than that of Ukraine and Gaza, but is still pretty horrifying

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

Not fully free from similar issues here. For instance, the BBC is massively downplaying turnout

The BBC is saying "thousands" were protesting on April 19th when others estimate in the range of 4 million. Counting people in photos on social media in just a handful of cities gives a figure higher than thousands. There were hundreds of protest locations

The BBC also claims there were "tens of thousands" on April 5th when it was estimated at 3-5 million. There were over 100 000 in DC and 100 000 in NYC alone on April 5th!

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

Blocking roads is not the only method of disruptive protest. There are a lot more options than that. Everything from sit-ins to much more creative disruptions

For instance, one technique that animal rights activists have successfully used before is gluing hands to tables to protest various things. May sound silly, but it gets outsized attention on both traditional and social media. For instance, it's been a factor to help get over 330 coffee chains to drop their non-dairy milk upcharge (including some major ones like Starbucks, Dunkin, Tim Hortons, etc.)

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Protests too can be disruptive. They don't have to be just people along the side of the road, building, etc. For instance, here's thousands of people blocking a freeway in downtown LA as part of anti-ICE protests in February

https://abc7ny.com/post/la-protest-thousands-anti-ice-protesters-block-101-freeway-streets-downtown-los-angeles/15858620/

(Did get more media coverage indeed due to being more disruptive)

Organizing a general strike is also more difficult in the US with union membership being so comparatively low. Greece and the UK both have around double the unionization rate (~20% vs ~10%). Not impossible, and would be great to see, but protests themselves are a tool that can help get there. Help people see that people within your community are just a pissed as you are and you'll have a lot more people willing to join in. Unions are some of the people organizing various protests too. They are able to drive membership up because of it

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