Plastic Use, Food Deserts, & Third World Countries During Corona

The Power Of Choice!
As we go into July, the middle of the year, and we pass through the American Independence day... we need to remember that some of us have the power to choose.

The power to choose to not make racist remarks, to accept your LGBTQ friends in your class, to go out of your way to fill up your reusable water bottle, to donate that extra bit of money to a non-profit that you care about.

We have the power of choice with our actions, our money, and our social media. We need to be louder than the negative. Drown out the things that make this world seem so bad. Go out and try to make a difference, the power of passing it forward is strong.

I realize that the pandemic has made it much harder to make green choices, I have fallen to the feet of feeling out of control. I have used plastic a lot these past few months, which is extremely hard for me because I was seriously on a high from being completely plastic-free for a while and reducing my carbon foot print by living in a van as well.

Some examples of how Corona has affected my ability to choose: Some grocery stores won't allow reusable bags. I lived with someone who was immunocompromised for a while, so I chose to buy things that were packaged to keep them safer. We bought single-use gloves to use at gas pumps (one of the worst places you can catch something). I was running out of money because I was laid-off, so I had to buy cheaper cosmetic products and go to my university's food closet to be able to make it through the week. Those things were all heavily packaged.

I couldn't help feeling the ultimate guilt inside because of my actions. Being plastic-free and sustainable has been a part of my identity probably since high school. I felt like I was having a crisis, with the never ending stress of my last semester of senior year, quarantine, not being able to see my family who lives half-way around the world, losing my job and my van. I was not alone in that, and I'm extremely fortunate to be in a place where I have the choice to stay home. To have a home, period. I can choose to stay safe, wear a mask, wash my hands in a clean sink. Even though there's no toilet paper or hand soap on the shelves of Harris Teeter, I can still manage to find a way to get the things I need somehow, somewhere.

Now that things are opening up (okay, they should not be... but whatever I guess), people are finding ways to get farmer's markets running, to make everything touch-less, to share ideas, laughter, and food in a way so that I can feel like I'm getting back to some sort of normality.

But the thing is, I'm still fortunate. 

Food Deserts in America
It's not easy for everyone in the United States. Ever heard of a food desert? A lot of rural America and minority neighborhoods experience it. Every. Single. Day. No supermarkets, no farmers markets, no access to the things that we are lucky enough to have. And it all plays perfectly with systematic racism. Put the people who have been most oppressed through time in areas where they unable to have safe living conditions, and on top of that, access to healthy options. Even if they wanted to buy healthy options, and are able to make sacrifices for it, there is still an invisible hand playing against them.

Source: https://www.worldhunger.org/food-deserts-in-america/

This all plays into America's addiction to fast food; resulting in heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Why are we so unhealthy? Because systematic oppression and systematic urban development.

According to WebMD: "High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects African-Americans in unique ways. African-Americans develop high blood pressure at younger ages than other groups in the U.S. African-Americans are more likely to develop complications associated with high blood pressure. These problems include stroke, kidney disease, blindness, dementia, and heart disease... 41% of blacks have high blood pressure, as compared to 27% of whites. In addition, black people in the U.S are more likely to be overweight than blacks in other countries. Some experts think that social and economic factors -- including discrimination and economic inequality -- are responsible for this difference."

Read more here: https://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/guide/hypertension-in-african-americans#1

And this is just one minority group. 

I also have taken a few urban planning classes in college and I would always feel myself get heated because I started putting two and two together of how literally urban planning has been put into place to mess with certain neighborhoods. These things are harder to change because highways have been built, communities have been established, and every day that passes, it would be harder and harder to uproot an entire region of people to move them somewhere where it could be better. 

This article explains it better than I ever could: https://www.fastcompany.com/3061873/how-urban-design-perpetuates-racial-inequality-and-what-we-can-do-about-it

Basically, food deserts been purposefully and tactically placed. 

Source: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/12043350d738444dbe9a77a9885446f4

So when I talk about being able to make the choice, I feel extremely fortunate to able to do it. Even when money was tight, I still was able to buy frozen veggies and oat milk. Although packaged meals were not my first choice, "healthy" was still a choice I had. I'm trying to get back to buying things without packaging again since I've gotten my job back, because there's another huge problem in the world: The plastic problem. 

A lot of people who have known me from the beginning of my waste-free journey know that I rave on about how everyone should boycott plastic and unsustainable companies. I rave on about this, obviously, because of climate change. I also rave on about this because if we have the power of CHOICE then we should use it. If we vote everyday with where we put our money, we can make change in the demand and eventually make waste-free options the default for everyone. I'm hoping that we can somehow make food deserts slowly disappear with re-designed urban planning and the constant push for healthier communities.


Third World Countries Out of Control
So now I'm going to make a full circle back to the plastic problem. This is also a reality that is plastic and climate change thing is affecting communities we don't even think about. Out of sight, out of mind, right? 

Like I said, I have felt extreme guilt when Coronavirus made me feel out of control of my choices. 

This is why.

Source: https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-01-13/5-countries-dump-more-plastic-oceans-rest-world-combined

I know what you're thinking. "There's no way thats real." Oh yes. It's absolutely real. This is the reality that people are living in because we literally cannot control our lazy impulse to get something quick and easy, and the third world is suffering because of us. This is about choice, people. If we have the choice, we should do something about it.

The rest of the world really just said, "fuck it."

Are you fucking kidding me? Do we not see whats going on? Why do we exploit already struggling communities? Capitalism's answer is, "Well we are creating jobs for those people out there."

I'm literally laughing so hard out of the pure insanity that we can actually accept this in our minds. This is ultimately why I feel so guilty. I don't want to be a part of the problem, and I have been in the recent months. Are you?

When I learned how to sail for the first time last year, I remember having a conversation with the captain, who has had years of sailing experience under his belt. He said, "Yeah there are cargo ships that don't know what to do with the trash, so they just dump it in the ocean." I think I lost it there for a second. This man loves the ocean more than anything (he teaches people how to sail for a living). He quit working in a bank after twenty-five years, shaved his head and grew a beard, and lives on a thirty-nine foot sailboat now. I would walk along the beaches where we would stop and pick up trash in my free time.

Somehow I still feel like I can't even make a difference. Unless I can convince other people to do take action as well. According to WeForum, "And it is these poorer countries that are shouldering much of the burden of our global waste habit. Between 400,000 and 1 million people die each year in developing countries because of diseases caused by mismanaged waste, estimates poverty charity Tearfund."

These populations are already struggling with just getting proper shelter, food, water, and an education. And we just swoop in and dump literal trash on them. 

Wondering why new diseases emerge? Well this is one of those reasons. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to figure out that Coronavirus actually was a cause of the trash problem in China. 

It's tainting our world's water-supply, making living conditions even more difficult for most of the population, and it seems like we as Americans are still okay with it. Pretty fucked up, huh? 

Make your choice today. 
Be part of the problem, or be part of the solution.

-> Download my step by step guide to plastic-free living here. It's digital and free. Always will be. 

-> Donate or volunteer in organizations that are helping solve these problems in this blog post. Comment in this post if you know of any other organizations making a difference.

Food Deserts in America:
Organized by a woman of color: Food Empowerment Project
Bodega in DC providing fresh food: DC Central Kitchen
Farming, food, policy: Civil Eats

Protect Third World Communities: 
Sponsor & educate young children: Child Fund International
Teaching sustainable practices to end world hunger: The Hunger Project
Unwanted soap redirected to people in need: Clean The World
Fighting hunger & malnutrition: Edesia
Women's rights: Global Fund for Women

Help Solve Plastic Pollution:
Healthy oceans & coastal clean up: Ocean Conservancy
Restoring oceans: Oceana
Say no to plastic bags: Bye Bye Plastic Bags
Education & activism around plastic pollution: Bahamas Plastic Movement

Fight Climate Change:  
Curb over-fishing: Environmental Defense Fund
Protect land, water, & animals: Nature Conservancy
Rainforests & protecting tropical nations: Coalition for Rainforest Nations
Reduce air pollution: Clean Air Task Force