Many of us have often found ourselves in situations, especially in the privilege of corporately run so-called first world societies where we seemed faced daily with impossible choices in terms of sustainability versus convenience and financial hardships and restrictions when we shop for food, medicines or any material items in general from clothes to furniture and beyond this; as such this section is meant to offer you a glimpse of some of the best non-profit and ethical intersectional and indigenous companies in the world you can consciously support to make the planet a better place in an age of slave labor, genocide, wars, disease and mass extinction.
One of the most fundamental aspects to keep in mind when shopping for any items in general is that a) we are what we eat, water is life and food is medicine ideally speaking, so of course if we put commodification, slave labor, corporate chemicals and adulterated or genetically modified substances in our bodies instead of organic, holistic, plant-based and indigenous local and sustainable ital foods and medicines to heal us it should come as no surprise that we would become ourselves domesticated, enslaved or sickened and diseased in the process. Many of the other sections in this website explain more in depths different aspects of optimal and ideal conscious nutrition and sustainability, please do explore other sources as well but keep in mind to always check for independent sources and facts, I write this myself as a nutritionist and postdoctoral scholar as well as a diasporic decolonial professor and activist who has been prey to this system and it's corruption far too many times and has spent most of my earlier life poisoned by the very foods and substances that so-called doctors and nutritionists or family and friends, not to mention lying advertisements and corporations such as the animal ag industry, McDonalds, Nestle, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kelloggs and many others tried to convince me were actually acceptable to put into my body to relieve my stress or tensions or make me momentarily feel better.
If you're wondering where to start in terms of sustainable local products you don't have to order online beyond those listed here, please check out the Free2work app down below and click on the picture's link, or just ecosia search it directly on your cell phone, and start shopping for slave labor free products. Also keep in mind that Fair Trade certification is just the most basic standard of ethics in imported foods and technically still can involve many forms of exploitation: direct trade is significantly better in many cases, but horizontal trade is the highest, and local is always the most sustainable technically, especially if you're supporting independent plant-based farmers and businesses. Please also keep in mind that organic certifications do not mean in any way shape or form that there is no slave labor involved, this is probably one of the greatest lies of the organic industry, just like the misconception that free range actually means there is no oppression and the animals are free when in reality all it means is that they're crammed in spaces where they can barely move but aren't technically in cages, like 3000 chickens in a 1000 sq ft farm room with a tiny trap door at the end that 99% of the chickens literally can't even access without stomping over each other but still allows the farmers to legally say that their chickens have a "free range" certification and can technically go outside (if they can reach the small trap door).
A list of imported products which most often contain child and slave labor and are commonly used in modern society without most of us thinking of the implications of this, let alone the carbon footprint or resources and water needed to produce them include coffee, chocolate, coconut products, bananas and tropical fruits, imported spices, avocados, tomatoes and imported veggies, rice, sugar, particularly in processed forms but even organic and natural ones as well, which is still one of the biggest slave labor plantation industries in the world and is essentially the cocaine of food product5 because of the rush and crash of momentary energy it gives us in its bleached form. That being said, the answer to solving this sustainability conundrum is actually a lot simpler than it seems, even in a world like this one: keep it simple and local whenever possible, repurpose, reuse, upcycle, recycle, purchase consciously, locally and sustainably, buy from independent multiethnic and sustainable businesses instead of chain stores and corporations, and if you can't afford to buy higher quality non-slave labor products, do what I've most often done and shop wisely for discount bargains, overripe produce, near-expired ones or overstock, wholesale promotions at significant discounts, and check out our dumpster diving / green bin gathering section as well, as you'd be amazed how much you can find that shops end up wasting at the end of the day. More than half of the food produced worldwide ends up in dumpsters because of overstock and overproduction, and in places like France and elsewhere in Europe it is now illegal for businesses to throw away food and medicines, they have to donate them to charities and community organizations instead. So if you're looking for something to do in your spare time, try convincing your local businesses, including chain retail stores you may have gone to to donate their surpluses and expired foods to local charities instead of wasting them, or ask them for permission to repurpose those foods and medicines yourselves. If they don't want to agree, go after hours and do it anyways.
One of the most fundamental aspects to keep in mind when shopping for any items in general is that a) we are what we eat, water is life and food is medicine ideally speaking, so of course if we put commodification, slave labor, corporate chemicals and adulterated or genetically modified substances in our bodies instead of organic, holistic, plant-based and indigenous local and sustainable ital foods and medicines to heal us it should come as no surprise that we would become ourselves domesticated, enslaved or sickened and diseased in the process. Many of the other sections in this website explain more in depths different aspects of optimal and ideal conscious nutrition and sustainability, please do explore other sources as well but keep in mind to always check for independent sources and facts, I write this myself as a nutritionist and postdoctoral scholar as well as a diasporic decolonial professor and activist who has been prey to this system and it's corruption far too many times and has spent most of my earlier life poisoned by the very foods and substances that so-called doctors and nutritionists or family and friends, not to mention lying advertisements and corporations such as the animal ag industry, McDonalds, Nestle, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kelloggs and many others tried to convince me were actually acceptable to put into my body to relieve my stress or tensions or make me momentarily feel better.
If you're wondering where to start in terms of sustainable local products you don't have to order online beyond those listed here, please check out the Free2work app down below and click on the picture's link, or just ecosia search it directly on your cell phone, and start shopping for slave labor free products. Also keep in mind that Fair Trade certification is just the most basic standard of ethics in imported foods and technically still can involve many forms of exploitation: direct trade is significantly better in many cases, but horizontal trade is the highest, and local is always the most sustainable technically, especially if you're supporting independent plant-based farmers and businesses. Please also keep in mind that organic certifications do not mean in any way shape or form that there is no slave labor involved, this is probably one of the greatest lies of the organic industry, just like the misconception that free range actually means there is no oppression and the animals are free when in reality all it means is that they're crammed in spaces where they can barely move but aren't technically in cages, like 3000 chickens in a 1000 sq ft farm room with a tiny trap door at the end that 99% of the chickens literally can't even access without stomping over each other but still allows the farmers to legally say that their chickens have a "free range" certification and can technically go outside (if they can reach the small trap door).
A list of imported products which most often contain child and slave labor and are commonly used in modern society without most of us thinking of the implications of this, let alone the carbon footprint or resources and water needed to produce them include coffee, chocolate, coconut products, bananas and tropical fruits, imported spices, avocados, tomatoes and imported veggies, rice, sugar, particularly in processed forms but even organic and natural ones as well, which is still one of the biggest slave labor plantation industries in the world and is essentially the cocaine of food product5 because of the rush and crash of momentary energy it gives us in its bleached form. That being said, the answer to solving this sustainability conundrum is actually a lot simpler than it seems, even in a world like this one: keep it simple and local whenever possible, repurpose, reuse, upcycle, recycle, purchase consciously, locally and sustainably, buy from independent multiethnic and sustainable businesses instead of chain stores and corporations, and if you can't afford to buy higher quality non-slave labor products, do what I've most often done and shop wisely for discount bargains, overripe produce, near-expired ones or overstock, wholesale promotions at significant discounts, and check out our dumpster diving / green bin gathering section as well, as you'd be amazed how much you can find that shops end up wasting at the end of the day. More than half of the food produced worldwide ends up in dumpsters because of overstock and overproduction, and in places like France and elsewhere in Europe it is now illegal for businesses to throw away food and medicines, they have to donate them to charities and community organizations instead. So if you're looking for something to do in your spare time, try convincing your local businesses, including chain retail stores you may have gone to to donate their surpluses and expired foods to local charities instead of wasting them, or ask them for permission to repurpose those foods and medicines yourselves. If they don't want to agree, go after hours and do it anyways.
