#depression 2.0

[wejustvibing]

🩶.

[©Simon Galloway ©XPB Images]

[sourmagic]

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[cannabisbutch]

I rlly wanna cry but i can’t??? Im so tired of everything i can’t even cry about it.

[wearepioneerspress]

If you're having trouble making ends meet, book is really helpful! And we have nine copies!

ORDER HERE FROM PIONEERS PRESS

Depression 2.0

by Cletus Nelson

We have grown accustomed to life in a stable and prosperous society, and many of us are not prepared for financial uncertainty. Depression 2.0 is a practical, empowering, hands-on guide to persevering and even thriving in the event of an economic crisis. Placing particular emphasis on self-sufficiency, community-building, and personal resilience, this timely, informative book offers a hopeful way forward in a time of great uncertainty. Bankruptcy, barter, and survival investing are a few of the important topics explored. Here's the chapter list:

     • Worst Case Scenario: Contemplating Unemployment      • Down but Not Out: Economics for Leaner Times      • Walking Away: Thinking about Bankruptcy      • In Case of Emergency: The Resilient Home      • Return to Simplicity: Retreat Options      • Keeping the Lights on: Home Energy Solutions      • Between the Cracks: When You Have No Shelter      • Beyond Currency: When Greenbacks Go Bad      • Survival Finances: Crisis Investing      • Future Shift: The Road Ahead

[shutupandblogthehits]

Apparently that also explains why the Butriptylene was doing sod-all but turn me into a complete weapon. Jesus, this last 10 days have been messed the fuck up. Tumblr, thank you for being my emotional punching bag.

[vegansaurus]

Meat prices are higher; the solution is clearly theft

Obviously this is the most sensible thing to do: steal meat from the grocery store--hide it in your pants!--and sell it to restaurants at a discount. Or just steal the still-living animals from which the meat come.

Definitely don't eat things that are not meat. What kind of sucker stops buying a food because it's become prohibitively expensive? Don't find delicious, affordable alternatives--grains, legumes, nuts, pulses--that would be practical and smart.

No; just steal meat.

["The Harvest Moon" by Samuel Palmer via Yale Digital Commons]

[vegansaurus]

Guest post: Food accessibility is a vegan issue

I was sitting at my desk, staring at my coffee, when my co-worker walked in with a bag of cherries and said, “God, organic fruit at the farmers’ market is fucking expensive.”

At least we have a farmers’ market nearby selling local, organic fruit and vegetables, I thought, and my co-worker has the resources to buy some. When discussions of veganism and privilege come up–as they seem to be doing with increased frequency--there’s some understandable defensiveness from vegans, and some valid concerns that the “veganism is for rich white people” trope is both wrong and insulting to anyone not rich or white. But there remain striking differences food access across communities. This should concern everyone, but especially us veganism advocates.

A recent survey [pdf] by the very rad Food Empowerment Project (FEP) lays out the data. Looking at Santa Clara County specifically, they found that: “On average, higher-income areas have twice as many locations with fresh fruits and vegetables compared to the lower-income areas…14 times more locations with frozen fruit and six times more locations with frozen vegetables.… In addition to being generally less available in lower-income areas, the variety of produce is also limited in these locations.” Some of these findings are helpfully laid out in chart form: Other sections point out things that should be obvious to those of us who live, work, or generally exist in urban cores, but are worth stating plainly: there are fundamental differences between supermarkets and small corner groceries; meat and dairy alternatives are virtually nonexistent in many communities, despite high levels of lactose-intolerance in some of those populations; that, along with being “cash-poor,” many providers in low-income communities and communities of color are “time-poor,” way too overstretched by multiple jobs and responsibilities to travel to a distant shop for decent produce, return home, and prepare dinner. The FEP study calls this “environmental racism.” Check out the full thing, along with their recommendations, here [pdf]. Your ability to make healthy food choices shouldn’t depend on your address or income, and lack of access to fruits and vegetables amounts to a public health crisis in many places. The growing trend of farmers’ markets accepting food stamps is a welcome development: by expanding access to good food rather than restricting access to junk, it’s also a much smarter, and less paternalistic and classist way to encourage people to eat well. (Another option would be to eat all the locavores, provided they were humanely put down, with reverence for all that they would provide us, but that’s a topic for another post.) As vegans, it should matter to us especially. When we tell others to go vegan–which we should–it’s crucial to consider what barriers might stand in their way. Some are ideological, reflective of long-standing habits and assumptions, but some are more practical, like whether they can get to a market that sells non-gross apples. The ability to do so does mark a sort of privilege that needs to be recognized and dismantled, even if anti-vegan internet goofballs like to cite it for their own purposes. And finally, concern about food security and access shouldn’t be the domain of a borderline-sociopathic “locavore” community that seems to raise these issues only to argue that we need to kill chickens in our yards. We shouldn’t cede that ground (sign a petition against at-home chicken-slaughter right now!). Everyone deserves decent food, produced sustainably, locally, and without poisons, and vegan advocates should be on the frontlines of that push. The FEP’s work is a good place to start.

Rick Kelley is a recent transplant to the Bay, having fled the brutal Minnesota winters for warmer climes. He spends his days at a Oakland workers’ rights nonprofit and his evenings probably playing moderately accurate renditions of Propagandhi songs with his awesome partner and their rescued pup, Bandit. He’s also currently active in organizing against Oakland's “Let’s All Kill Some Chickens in Our Yards For Fun” proposal. He used to blog, and might do so again someday.

[vegansaurus]

Rainbow Grocery's Customer Appreciation Day is TOMORROW!

It's 20 percent off everything you want at Rainbow so get up on this! It's tomorrow today, Tuesday, Mar. 8, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. That's plenty of time to buy your bulk granola, 15 pounds of Daiya, and several dozen cases of almond milk. Be prepared for crazy-ass crowds and possible fisticuffs in the baked goods section but you know, that's life during Depression 2.0. Honestly, I look at it as good practice for Judgment Day. 

[Hat tip, Shelly!]