#butter market industry

[hritika1]

Butter Market Analysis, Size & Growth to 2028

Explore a comprehensive Butter Market analysis encompassing the latest trends and insights, providing a clear perspective on the Butter Market's size and growth prospects.

[poojaj]

Illipe Butter in Food Industry Market : Advanced Technologies & Growth Opportunities Worldwide By 2030

Illipe butter is a type of vegetable butter derived from the nuts of the Shorea stenoptera tree, which is native to Southeast Asia. It is commonly used in the food industry for its unique properties and benefits. Here’s an overview of Illipe butter in the food industry market:

Composition and Properties: Illipe butter has a high melting point, which makes it suitable for applications where heat stability is required, such as baking and confectionery. It is also rich in fatty acids, particularly stearic and oleic acids, which contribute to its solid consistency at room temperature.

Chocolate and Confectionery: Illipe butter is often used as a substitute for cocoa butter in chocolate and confectionery products. It provides similar texture and mouthfeel while offering a lower cost alternative. It can be used in chocolate bars, truffles, coatings, and fillings.

Bakery Products: Illipe butter is used in the production of various bakery products, including cookies, pastries, and bread. Its high melting point helps improve the stability and texture of baked goods, allowing them to maintain their shape and structure during baking.

Margarine and Spreads: Illipe butter can be used as an ingredient in margarine and spreads. Its solid consistency at room temperature provides structure and stability to these products, while its fatty acid composition contributes to the desired texture and flavor.

Skin Care Products: Apart from its applications in the food industry, Illipe butter is also used in the cosmetic and skincare industry. It is valued for its moisturizing and emollient properties, making it suitable for creams, lotions, lip balms, and soaps.

Market Demand and Trends: The demand for Illipe butter has been growing in recent years due to increasing consumer interest in natural and plant-based ingredients. It offers an alternative to animal-derived fats, such as butter or lard, and appeals to customers seeking vegan or vegetarian options. The market for Illipe butter is influenced by factors such as the growing preference for clean label ingredients, sustainable sourcing practices, and the rise in artisanal and premium food products.

Sustainability and Sourcing: The sustainability of Illipe butter production is an important consideration in the food industry. Responsible sourcing practices, including supporting fair trade initiatives and promoting sustainable agriculture, are increasingly important for both consumers and businesses. Ensuring that Illipe butter is harvested and processed in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner can be a key factor in its market acceptance.

[vintagegeekculture]

Enterprise, Alabama built a monument to the Boll Weevil in 1919. In 1915, the weevil destroyed a majority of the town's coffee and cotton crop. On the advice of Alabama's famous black agronomist George Washington Carver, the town switched instead to growing peanuts, which circus owner PT Barnum started to roast to use as concession stand food in his circus, leading to widespread popularity for them as a snack (along with the previously unknown drink, pink lemonade).

The Alabama town made so much more money with peanuts as a cash crop, and so they built a monument to the boll weevil for pushing them to switch away from coffee and cotton. It is the only statue dedicated to an insect.

Contrary to popular belief, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter, but a black Canadian, Marcellus Gilmore Edsen, did (he called it peanut paste). It was not popular until John Kellogg (yes, the cereal guy) was able to create a process to make it in batches industrially, and mass market it as a diet food for people who needed protein but couldn't chew.

[marxism-transgenderism]

That poll of midwestern dishes is so funny cause all the replies from people elsewhere are like "these cannot be real" but the actual food history of the midwest behind that is so interesting. When midwest what invaded and settled by the US, it was expanded principally as a commercial enterprise of large companies getting granted allotments from the government. It was done not only to fuel land speculation on a previously unheard of level but to create new markets for the eastern states to sell their goods to.

So when the midwest was settled its primary economy was what of farmers who grew crops primarily to sell back east to be able to buy goods that came east and to the growing industrial cities of the region, including food. People still grew crops that they would eat (corn on the cob is a classic), but that was by and large to supplement what was bought rather than subsisting on it.

So the dominant things you see in primarily white settler midwestern food is mass produced, commodities like ground beef, salted pork, canned beans, and macaroni. Well known sweets are generally things that can easily be whipped up with eggs, flour, and sugar like sugar cream pie and butter cookies. And this continues right up to today with many of the main recipes people learn to make are casseroles, stews, and hideous looking but unbelievably delicious mixes of processed foods. Most other dishes more complicated than that you can trace directly to Betty Crocker.

But the thing is, this food history is one primarily the white settlers who were able to buy land and committed the ongoing genocide that created the white midwest. On the ground, indigenous dishes both ones that existed prior to colonization and ones like fry bread from colonization still persist especially in the norther midwest. Black dishes are common across the region, especially in cities where Black immigrants fled to during the Great migration. Tex-mex and Central American food is incredibly common.

So when midwest food is talked about, it's primarily the simple, commodity based dishes of the white settler population that are acknowledged. Food from other cultures, despite being more common than the white food dishes in large parts of the midwest, is either ignored as not really midwestern or appropriated. To the point that even now corn is primarily associated in the US with the white dominated commercial farms rather than as one of the primary foods of the Indigenous population that made this region so prosperous before and during colonization.

[winniethewife]

You're always holding on to stars (Moon Knight system x Famous!F!reader)

Prompt: Stargazing.

Words: 736

They lay out in the field, her head on his chest as they gaze out on the stars in the sky. Marc and His childhood friend, his high School sweetheart, the one who will get away, He knows her asperations are what will separate them. She had just gotten signed to a big record company and was moving to New York. And he wasn’t coming. They had decided it was best to take a break, give her the room to grow in her industry, unattached. Neither of them really wanted to. They we’re both very in love, but Marc Knew she would do amazing things, with or without him.

“I used to think this all was ours” Marc mutters as they looks out on the stars. “You and me against the world. Forever.”

“Me too. I never thought I’d actually get signed. I figured it would be the two of us, open mic nights at the coffee house, normal lives…” She softly says as she cuddles in closer to him. He wraps an arm around her and squeezes her tight

“Don’t feel bad for following your dreams. I’ll always be there to support you.”

“I know, I just…I wish you were coming with me. I’m going to miss you.” She sighs.

“Cheer up butter cup. Its not forever, just until you get your feet on the ground right?” He takes her chin in his hand and looks into her eyes.

“Right…just a break…Not a break up.”

~

Two years have passed, they have stayed in pretty close contact, and when Marc and Steven started to live a more integrated life she had taken the time to come out to London to get to know him. She stayed with him for a visit. And Steven was absolutely enchanted with her. She was an amazing artist he was enamored from the moment they met. As they walked through Camden Market they were stopped a few times by excited fans. Steven watched and helped take pictures with a smile on his face.

“I’m sorry Steven I know you wanted to just have some time the two of us…” She smiles sheepishly at him.

“No! I’m not bothered at all! It’s nice how sweet you are to your fans! It’s quite…adorable” He chuckles and rubs the back of his neck as he looks at her. He was falling for her hard…he could understand what had Marc hooked to her.

As they days in London pass, She, Marc and Steven start to fall into a pattern, and tabloids start talking…And much too soon she has to leave again. As Steven gets to say his goodbye he holds her in his arms.

 “How is it that you're right here…why do I miss you so much?” Steven asks with tears in the corners of his eyes.

“Hey now don’t cry, we decided, I’ll be back, we’re going to make this work this time. I promise.” She reassures him while wiping the tears from his eyes. She smiles at him.

“I feel Like I’m Stargazing. Watchin’ your life from afar. You’re my star…Shining brighter than the rest.” Steven says sweetly as he presses his forehead against hers. She smiles then leans in to kiss him.

~

As the years pass eventually the fame and hype dies down, and Marc, Steven and her are able to live mostly normal lives, eventually, they also integrate their third alter Jake into their happy family. Jake take a little more time to warm up to her, but as the years pass, wedding anniversaries come and go, Jake is as much in love with her as the others. It was a beautiful evening as they sat on the balcony of their home looking out on the sky as the stars start to show.

“Estrella ... te ves tan hermosa en el crepúsculo…” Jake says to her with his voice low and pressing his body against hers as she leans on the railing. She chuckles and looks over her shoulder at him.

“You’re too cheesy.” She teases.

“What? Sólo digo la verdad, cariño. You know this.” He says in a mock offended tone as he pulls her closer, turning her to face him. “I close my eyes and think about tomorrow and All I see is us…stargazing…” He looks into her eyes, gazing into them he smiles. The stars in the sky will never compare to those in her eyes.

Translations:

Estrella ... te ves tan hermosa en el crepúsculo : Star...you look so beautiful in the twilight

Sólo digo la verdad, cariño.: I only speak the truth my darling.

Bingo Masterlist

Tag: @moonknight-events @juneknight @spacecowboyhotch

[mariacallous]

Milton Orr looked across the rolling hills in northeast Tennessee. “I remember when we had over 1,000 dairy farms in this county. Now we have less than 40,” Orr, an agriculture adviser for Greene County, Tennessee, told me with a tinge of sadness.

That was six years ago. Today, only 14 dairy farms remain in Greene County, and there are only 125 dairy farms in all of Tennessee. Across the country, the dairy industry is seeing the same trend: In 1970, more than 648,000 US dairy farms milked cattle. By 2022, only 24,470 dairy farms were in operation.

While the number of dairy farms has fallen, the average herd size—the number of cows per farm—has been rising. Today, more than 60 percent of all milk production occurs on farms with more than 2,500 cows.

This massive consolidation in dairy farming has an impact on rural communities. It also makes it more difficult for consumers to know where their food comes from and how it’s produced.

As a dairy specialist at the University of Tennessee, I’m constantly asked: Why are dairies going out of business? Well, like our friends’ Facebook relationship status, it’s complicated.

The Problem with Pricing

The biggest complication is how dairy farmers are paid for the products they produce.

In 1937, the Federal Milk Marketing Orders, or FMMO, were established under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act. The purpose of these orders was to set a monthly, uniform minimum price for milk based on its end use and to ensure that farmers were paid accurately and in a timely manner.

Farmers were paid based on how the milk they harvested was used, and that’s still how it works today.

Does it become bottled milk? That’s Class 1 price. Yogurt? Class 2 price. Cheddar cheese? Class 3 price. Butter or powdered dry milk? Class 4. Traditionally, Class 1 receives the highest price.

There are 11 FMMOs that divide up the country. The Florida, Southeast, and Appalachian FMMOs focus heavily on Class 1, or bottled, milk. The other FMMOs, such as Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest, have more manufactured products such as cheese and butter.

For the past several decades, farmers have generally received the minimum price. Improvements in milk quality, milk production, transportation, refrigeration, and processing all led to greater quantities of milk, greater shelf life, and greater access to products across the US. Growing supply reduced competition among processing plants and reduced overall prices.

Along with these improvements in production came increased costs of production, such as cattle feed, farm labor, veterinary care, fuel, and equipment costs.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee in 2022 compared the price received for milk across regions against the primary costs of production: feed and labor. The results show why farms are struggling.

From 2005 to 2020, milk sales income per 100 pounds of milk produced ranged from $11.54 to $29.80, with an average price of $18.57. For that same period, the total costs to produce 100 pounds of milk ranged from $11.27 to $43.88, with an average cost of $25.80.

On average, that meant a single cow that produced 24,000 pounds of milk brought in about $4,457. Yet, it cost $6,192 to produce that milk, meaning a loss for the dairy farmer.

More efficient farms are able to reduce their costs of production by improving cow health, reproductive performance, and feed-to-milk conversion ratios. Larger farms or groups of farmers—cooperatives such as Dairy Farmers of America—may also be able to take advantage of forward contracting on grain and future milk prices. Investments in precision technologies such as robotic milking systems, rotary parlors, and wearable health and reproductive technologies can help reduce labor costs across farms.

Regardless of size, surviving in the dairy industry takes passion, dedication, and careful business management.

Some regions have had greater losses than others, which largely ties back to how farmers are paid, meaning the classes of milk, and the rising costs of production in their area. There are some insurance and hedging programs that can help farmers offset high costs of production or unexpected drops in price. If farmers take advantage of them, data shows they can functions as a safety net, but they don’t fix the underlying problem of costs exceeding income.

Passing the Torch to Future Farmers

Why do some dairy farmers still persist, despite low milk prices and high costs of production?

For many farmers, the answer is because it is a family business and a part of their heritage. Ninety-seven percent of US dairy farms are family owned and operated.

Some have grown large to survive. For many others, transitioning to the next generation is a major hurdle.

The average age of all farmers in the 2022 Census of Agriculture was 58.1. Only 9 percent were considered “young farmers,” age 34 or younger. These trends are also reflected in the dairy world. Yet, only 53 percent of all producers said they were actively engaged in estate or succession planning, meaning they had at least identified a successor.

How to Help Family Dairy Farms Thrive

In theory, buying more dairy would drive up the market value of those products and influence the price producers receive for their milk. Society has actually done that. Dairy consumption has never been higher. But the way people consume dairy has changed.

Americans eat a lot, and I mean a lot, of cheese. We also consume a good amount of ice cream, yogurt, and butter, but not as much milk as we used to.

Does this mean the US should change the way milk is priced? Maybe.

The FMMO is currently undergoing reform, which may help stem the tide of dairy farmers exiting. The reform focuses on being more reflective of modern cows’ ability to produce greater fat and protein amounts; updating the cost support processors receive for cheese, butter, nonfat dry milk, and dried whey; and updating the way Class 1 is valued, among other changes. In theory, these changes would put milk pricing in line with the cost of production across the country.

The US Department of Agriculture is also providing support for four Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives to help dairy farmers find ways to keep their operations going for future generations through grants, research support, and technical assistance.

Another way to boost local dairies is to buy directly from a farmer. Value-added or farmstead dairy operations that make and sell milk and products such as cheese straight to customers have been growing. These operations come with financial risks for the farmer, however. Being responsible for milking, processing, and marketing your milk takes the already big job of milk production and adds two more jobs on top of it. And customers have to be financially able to pay a higher price for the product and be willing to travel to get it.

[duhragonball]

It's my birthday today, and the local grocery store was thoughtful enough to stock the Dragon Ball Z Reese's Puffs, so I'm gonna try it out. Join me, won't you?

I still can't believe this is real. I mean, Reese's Puffa is kind of surreal enough as it is. It sounds like some satirical brand meant to poke fun at sugary kids' cereals. The box says "Made with REAL REESE'S Peanut Butter", the same way a fruit-flavored beverage will claim to contain genuine fruit.

The bowl on the box art is a Reese's cup, so it basically depicts candy being served in more candy. I'm old enough to remember when they would photograph cereal as "part of a complete breakfast", and there'd be grapefruits and toast and maybe a hard boiled egg. Basically they were admitting that the cereal was so unhealthy that you needed to eat three or four other breakfasts to make up for it. I just liked the photos because they were so picturesque. Ah, to have unlimited free time to prepare a leisurely 4-course breakfast while reading the paper. I just assumed everyone else was having toast with their cereal except my family, but yeah, it never really made any sense.

I haven't even gotten to Goku yet, but first I want to talk about his spoon. I don't think we see him holding a spoon very often. He's usually a chopsticks kind of guy, or he'll just use his bare hands or even dunk his head into the bowl. It kind of looks like a ladle when he holds it like that, which implies he cooked this bowl of candy soup all by himself, and he's showing it off like a proud chef. This spoon kicks ass, is what I'm trying to say.

But the real reason I bought this is because of that orange hillbilly who needs no introduction. I wasn't even looking for Reese's Puffs. It was the furthest thing from my mind. No, I was stocking up on the old-man cereal I require to survive, when I just saw him staring at me, with his friendly-yet-confident smile. Goku's not pressuring you to buy the cereal. He's sure you'll enjoy it, but it's okay if you want to take a pass. He'll just enjoy all this peanut butter chocolate goodness all by himself. Goku is truly the ideal spokesman. How can you say no to this lovable hunk?

I'm kind of out of touch when it comes to cereal marketing, but I'm pretty sure this sort of cross-promotion is a rarity. Like, they once put WWE wrestlers on Wheaties or something, but usually if the cereal companies want a cartoon on the box they'll just make their own character. Or if the cartoon people want to put their guy in the cereal aisle, they'll just commission a whole new cereal just for that brand. C-3PO had his own cereal for a while. It was pretty good!

What I'm saying is that it's kind of unusual to see a popular character like this on a cereal box. The only exception I can come up with is Fred Flintstone on Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, but I always assumed that those were specifically "Flintstones Cereal".

Other than that, yeah, I can't think of any other examples of cartoon characters appearing on unaffiliated cereal boxes like this. Well, I drew my DBZ OC on a box of All-Bran today, but I don't think that counts.

"MY FIBER IS MAXIMUM, KAKAROT!"

I wondered what was up with the picture of Piccolo on the back of the box, and it turns out that he's one of seven different characters you can find on the back of the box. Collect them all! Aw man, that Cell one looks fucking sick! I don't know how they distributed these. Maybe they roll them out in waves and Piccolo's came first. Or maybe it's random and I might have found a Cell if I'd checked more boxes at the store. Well, Piccolo's pretty good. I guess.

All right, I just poured myself a bowl and Goku's cereal is gonna have to set course for Planet Oat. The dairy industry may not applaud my shopping choices, but I like oat milk because it doesn't spoil as quickly as cow milk, and it's got a nice oat-y flavor that compliments the cardboard taste of All-Bran.

I did not put Dawn liquid soap in my cereal. This time.

So what's the verdict here? Well, the first few bites were pretty tasty, and then I realized I was getting kind of sick of this as I made my way to the bottom of the bowl. The peanut butter flavor overwhelms everything. It has a very strong odor, so if you like Reese's peanut butter cups you can just sit this out in your room and savor the aroma. I barely registered any chocolate flavor at all. I mean, I believe they put it there, but the peanut butter is the whole story to this.

It's basically Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs from Calvin and Hobbes, only this is a special Peanut Butter variant they made. I never really appreciated the jokes about sugary cereals before. I grew up on Frosted Flakes and the like, but there were a certain class of cereals that my mom would just refuse to buy. My grandparents would have them, but I never really understood the difference between Frosted Flakes and Honey Smacks. As I got older, I ate less cereal in general, but that was mostly because I fell out of the habit of eating breakfast altogether.

But now I'm 47, and the only cereal I eat these days is bran topped with diced peaches and a couple of packets of artificial sweetener, so Reese's Puffs is way, way too sugary for my palate. It's not bad, but a little goes a long way for me.

When I was a kid, old people were always griping about all the stuff they couldn't eat anymore. I remember Isaac Asimov writing mournfully about how he couldn't have an Oreo cookie, which bummed me out because that was my favorite cookie back then, and it seemed that the fate of all humanity was to be denied the simple pleasure of enjoying them.

Now, I realize that a lot of the stuff that you liked as a kid just doesn't age up with you. Your tastes change, and you gain appreciations for new things that you wouldn't have appreciated before. That's not a bad thing. It's life. Things change, and you change along with them.

Well, you and I do, anyway. Not Goku, whose Saiyan biology keeps him looking exactly the same for sixty years so he can eat all the sweetened corn puffs he wants. But I don't envy him, is what I'm trying to say. I'm watching a wrestling show on PPV tonight, my mom took me to Cracker Barrel for lunch today, and I drew on a cereal box. I can't complain.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from DeSmog Blog:

In the chilled section of any major supermarket, from London to Lagos, you’re likely to find a taste of Ireland – a stick of premium butter wrapped in gold or green packaging, celebrating a superior product from grass-fed pastures. 

But the gleaming image of Ireland’s agri-produce hides a number of inconvenient truths, among them the damage the sector is wreaking on Ireland’s climate targets, as well as its waterways and soils.

Ahead of a general election due no later than March next year, DeSmog has launched a new interactive map revealing the power of the Irish agribusiness sector and its hundreds of connections spanning politics, marketing, academia and industry.

Dairy production in Ireland has boomed since 2011, as the EU started phasing out its cap on milk production, with a devastating impact on the climate. Latest figures show that instead of cutting its agricultural emissions, Ireland has increased them – by 10 percent over the period 2010-2023.

While profitable for dairy industry bosses, the expansion is highly detrimental to Ireland’s declared aim to cut agriculture emissions by 25 percent by 2030, as part of its legally binding commitment to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050.

Intensive farming practices lead to excessive levels of nitrates in fertilisers and manure, harming the lush green pastures Ireland prides itself on. These nitrates lead to oxygen-sucking algae growth in lakes and rivers, and have contributed to 99 percent of Ireland’s ammonia air pollution. 

Despite a slight reduction in overall emissions last year, Ireland is still “well off track” in meeting its EU and national climate targets for 2030, according to its Environmental Protection Agency – in large part due to the methane from Ireland’s unchecked dairy production. The agriculture sector was responsible for over a third (37.8 percent) of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, the highest proportion in Europe. 

The intensive farming lobby appears to be in the driving seat. Major dairy processors in particular have been ramping up lobbying efforts around Ireland’s derogation from the EU Nitrates Directive, designed to tackle farming pollution. The country’s exemption allows certain farms to use larger amounts of manure as fertiliser, despite the fact it releases significant amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 100 year period.

[shitpunsforshitnuns]

OBSESSED with the fact that the infamous “gross American food” poll is fully just poor people food that people still make/buy either because it was passed through their family or because they’re still poor. Allow me to elaborate. Here’s the poll if you’ve managed to avoid the discourse:

American Chocolate tastes different because of two factors: the majority of our cacao comes from South America unlike Europe which generally imports from Africa (moving product farther costs more money). Also, American chocolate is only required to have 10% cacao as opposed to Europe’s 20% (using less cacao and supplementing with readily available sweeteners like corn syrup costs less money). In fact, the very first American Chocolate company (Baker Chocolate Company) was so aware of how much less wealthy the early US was than Europe’s established market for chocolate, that their bars came with a money back guarantee for anyone who was disappointed with the sweets. The current financial situation in the US is well known to the rest of the world- of course we still make and eat cheap chocolate, the bones of our country are exploitation. Also, the dairy content is lower in American chocolates which makes them more shelf stable. Shelf stable foods are important for communities living paycheck to paycheck who have money for a chocolate bar right now but won’t for their kid’s birthday in a week.

Bologna feels self explanatory to me. It’s made of literal scraps from the meat production industry that are then turned into a “sausage” and cured to give the product more longevity. I like fried bologna because it was cheaper for my dad’s parents when he was a kid. My dad likes bologna for the same reason.

Watergate Salad is made of shelf stable ingredients. Many desserts require eggs or dairy that can be expensive and expire quickly. Those desserts then get stale if they aren’t eaten immediately. Canned fruits, pistachio pudding mix, and cool whip (which is hydrogenated oil and very little dairy) will all keep for a while. You can buy them in bulk and put them in your cabinets or freezer until you want to use them and then the salad itself will keep in the fridge. See again the importance of shelf stable foods to impoverished communities.

Twinkies are cheap and go stale slowly. See again the importance of shelf stable foods in impoverished communities.

Grits, Boiled Peanuts, and Biscuits and Gravy are all southern comfort food staples. I was born and raised in north Georgia, it’s very important to me to note that almost all southern food was co-opted from freed slaves by poor rural white folk in the south. Plain grits can be deeply unappetizing but they are cheap and self stable. You can add butter and salt or even seasoned meat and veggies. Grits are rarely a whole meal all to themselves and when they are you add some cheese or salt at the very least. George Washington Carver (a black man many people outside of Georgia should acquaint themselves with at least a little better) turned peanuts into a massive cash crop in Georgia because they are nitrogen fixing! They replace the nitrogen other cash crops (like cotton and tobacco) take out of the soil. In order for your fields to stay viable, you have to plant something like this every once in a while, so most farmers had peanuts themselves or had a neighbor growing peanuts. Boiling them is a quick, easy way to get salt on the nuts themselves. The water soaks through the shells and seasons and softens the nuts. Water is free and peanuts will keep until the fats start to go south, no wonder they picked up popularity among rural folk and travelers alike. Biscuits and gravy are another scrap food. A good sausage gravy is made of leftover sausage and southern biscuits are a savory, buttery carb that is filling and gives you energy you need somewhere like a farm. The negative stereotypes of the south are pervasive and often rooted in racism. Find someone whose grandma has been making these foods her whole life before you form an opinion.

Meatloaf is seasoned more often than not. Like. Sorry you ate meatloaf that wasn’t salted. Anyway, meatloaf is another scrap food! Meat scraps are ground up and then formed into a loaf. Most people put tomato sauce or ketchup on it. Canned tomato products are, you guessed it, shelf stable, and can also be canned at home fairly safely.

The United States at large is not ignorant of the world around it. We are aware that other foods exist. Either we are choosing to eat these or our financial situations are backing us into corners. This is all without even touching upon the prevalence of food deserts in low-income, minority communities in the US. If you’re aware of all this and you really just want to critique the wealth disparity in the US, punch up. Go after the guys with money, not the food that the rest of us find joy in making out of the scraps. Also, making fun of the British is always punching up. Maybe if you had caused fewer wealth disparities that directly impacted the food eaten in other countries, we would be nicer about yours.

[steampunkforever]

Considering how critically panned Alex Garland's 2022 film Men was, I expected it to be much more of a flop than it was. At the same time, it wasn't as compelling as I wanted it to be. Yet there's more to this film than just an A24 movie made for and by the therapy industrial complex, and I think that should be acknowledged.

One thing Men does very well is give us something. Of course the film may feel overly abstract to the point of getting lost in the weeds rather than remaining ambiguous, but it delivers on the "horror" part of psychological horror much better than many other A24 low/mid budget psychological films in the same market segment. Not that it does it perfectly, but at least we have SOMETHING at the end. The gore wasn't anything spectacular, but it was still a payoff of some sort rather than the Block Island Sound refusal to give us anything.

This is Alex Garland after all, and his bread and butter has been Psychological horror, albeit of the science fiction flavor that Men departs from. The film instead approaches psychological horror from the English Folklore angle, something that isn't new to other A24 productions but I appreciated. The folklore references weren't elaborate or flashy, but I appreciated them as little nods rather than taking the route of self-congratulation on badly adapting the most obscure reference they could find three articles into a wikipedia rabbithole. Men is a solid movie, and was directed with purpose, and I can appreciate that.

What I didn't appreciate of the film was how muddied the message was. It's a film that knows what it wants to say, and is clearly trying to communicate it in a way that's #deep as most therapyspeak psychological horror films do. Except it doesn't. It obfuscates its on message and imagery just a tad too much, intending to leave things ambiguous and up to interpretation but really just leaving me with the impression that the film just lacked conviction.

Men, despite my complaints is not a flop. We'll have to wait to see if Civil War is well and truly Garland's first truly bad movie (I'm betting it is) or if the funniest entry on his IMDB page will have to remain DmC: Devil May Cry

[dailyanarchistposts]

Biotechnology and the future of humanity

The End Of Diversity

GM technology is also set to plunge countless thousands of people into poverty by using GM plants or tissue cultures to produce certain products which have up until now only been available from agricultural sources in the majority world. For example, lauric acid is widely used in soap and cosmetics and has always been derived from coconuts. Now oilseed rape has been genetically modified to produce it and Proctor & Gamble, one of the largest buyers of lauric acid, have opted for the GM source. This is bound to have a negative effect on the 21 million people employed in the coconut trade in the Philippines and the 10 million people in Kerala, India, who are dependent on coconuts for their livelihood. Millions of smallscale cocoa farmers in West Africa are now under threat from the development of GM cocoa butter substitutes. In Madagascar some 70,000 vanilla farmers face ruin because vanilla can now be produced from GM tissue cultures. Great isn’t it? 70,000 farming families will be bankrupted and thrown off the land and instead we’ll have half a dozen factories full of some horrible biotech gloop employing a couple of hundred people. And what will happen to those 70,000 families? Well, the corporations could buy up the land and employ 10% of them growing GM cotton or tobacco or some such crap and the rest can go rot in some shantytown. This is what the corporations call ‘feeding the world’.

Poisoning the earth and its inhabitants brings in big money for the multinationals, large landowners and the whole of the industrial food production system. Traditional forms of organic, small-scale farming using a wide variety of local crops and wild plants (so-called’ weeds’) have been relatively successful at supporting many communities in relative self-sufficiency for centuries. In total contrast to industrial capitalisms chemical soaked monocultures, Mexico’s Huastec indians have highly developed forms of forest management in which they cultivate over 300 different plants in a mixture of gardens,’ fields’ and forest plots. The industrial food production system is destroying the huge variety of crops that have been bred by generations of peasant farmers to suit local conditions and needs. A few decades ago Indian farmers were growing some 50,000 different varieties of rice. Today the majority grow just a few dozen. In Indonesia 1,500 varieties have been lost in the last 15 years. Although a plot growing rice using modern so-called ‘High Yielding Varieties’ with massive inputs of artificial fertilisers and biocides produces more rice for the market than a plot being cultivated by traditional organic methods, the latter will be of more use to a family since many other species of plant and animal can be collected from it. In West Bengal up to 124 ‘weed’ species can be collected from traditional rice fields that are of use to farmers. The sort of knowledge contained in these traditional forms of land use will be of great use to us in creating a sustainable future on this planet; it is the sort of knowledge the corporations are destroying to trap us all in their nightmare world of wage labour, state and market.

[iantimony]

oopsie, two missed tuesdays!

and i almost missed this one too!!!! i was moving apartments. ough. this is a random mishmash of everything i remember of the past .. three ?? ??? weeks.

listening: finished s1 of the silt verses! faulkner is my poor little meow meow etc. i am rotating it in my brain. will have more thoughts next week probably.

some fugazi because they were referenced in a mina le video on merch and i was intrigued. they're good!

fugazi waiting room

brat charli xcx on recommendation of beloved mutual png jpeg. i liked it, i don't normally go for her style but there's some good earworms in here. really good gym album. not sure which specific song to drop here because it was a Full Album experience imo.

in terms of relistening/older stuff, the dear hunter antimai, more franz ferdinand. finally listened to sound & fury by sturgill simpson all the way through, it's really good. boyf also got me to listen to die antwoord and ohhh i do like this. a lot.

i fink u freeky (die antwoord)

also more bionicle playlist. it's just a dose of early 00's-10's music delivered via iv directly into my bloodstream. sorry.

reading: this was from a few weeks ago actually but i forgot about it. we stopped over in pittsburgh for a night and briefly entertained the idea of going to a museum or something road-trip style and found this museum review. surprisingly she is not a lesbian.

and then related to the watching, wikipedia pages for victor ninov and darleane c hoffman!

watching: mina le: the merch industry has gone too far, WAGs, blokecore, and the “feminization” of sports

swell entertainment: the marketability of celebrity eras, how to destroy your audience's trust

started dangelo wallace's ozempic video. the fatphobia had me tapping out pretty quick tho. also watched about half of joy achill's "the george r r martin problem" about asoiaf stuff, gonna finish it tomorrow i think

watched "the man who tried to fake an element" with the boyf, really fascinating, i knew a little bit of it from one of my undergrad classes but this was a really good deep dive.

also watched two episodes of space dandy with the boyf. so much to unpack there.

playing: more dnd but otherwise fallow. made a little dungeon crawl type thing so that's pretty straightforward.

making: coasters mostly right now! the main ones are a Surprise so i will not be posting them yet. instead look at my worm

i've also started knitting a magic the gathering card sleeve as a semi-gag gift for a friend. it's really really stupid i love it so much. it is just ten rows of a rectangle in stockinette right now but i'm going to mock up a little texture work to get the swamp land symbol in the back.

eating: did a lot of takeout right after moving because, Yeah, but i finally started settling back in to home cooked meals. made my favorite orzo salad for a temple potluck, an ungodly amount of gyudon, and a garlic butter shrimp pasta thing.

misc: my new apartment is good!! the insulation isn't great, i know i'll have to shrinkwrap some windows this winter for Sure, but overall i'm settling in. i have a lot of organization and purging to do, especially of my House Clothes, craft supplies, and makeup/beauty shit, and i need to get one or two pieces of furniture still (like a couch......i have a funny little bachelor chair in front of the couch right now which is very funny). i got myself some fun plants from the farmers market as a housewarming gift to myself. i am finally the owner of a monstera, yippee, she Really needs a repot though. i also got a hoya lisa because i liked the name and it was cute and cat friendly and i got a vaguely labia-adjacent succulent. i have so many little household Needs and Tasks (mat for in front of the sink! blackout curtains because i have to sleep with an eye mask right now because the blinds dont do shit! etc!) and also every grocery bill i do is like $100 because of getting kitchen essentials that will not run out any time soon but that i do need (white vinegar. aluminum foil. flour.) so everything is so expensive. this is a big wall of text. at least the spare mattress is out of my weird haunted hallway now <3 i'm very excited to start hanging up my art.

[hypaalicious]

Black Hair Care myths BUSTED!

Since I’m fighting off the plague and have nothing else better to do but lay here pitifully, I’ve decided to talk about hair again after my last two posts on shampoo types and curly hair care , only this time focusing on Black folks’ hair and the misinformation lots of us grew up on.

Now, because I know the gowrls like to tussle (and Mercury in Microbraids along with an eclipse is upon us), lemme just say this: if you’re absolutely happy with your hair care routine, then this post isn’t for you.

This post is only for people who are curious and want to evolve and simplify their hair care routines.

OKAY LEGGO:

The hair typing chart is garbage.

Everyone and they mama should be familiar with this chart. So many of us use it to determine what type of hair products to buy that work best for our hair type.

Unfortunately, the chart is pseudo-science.

All hair types need the same basic care (shampooing/conditioning at least every week), and products that claim to cater to a specific hair type is just a marketing tactic. This chart also promotes texturism; Oprah’s stylist literally made up the type 4 category to say that the only thing to do to tight curls is to straighten or loosen them. 🥲

Products can’t give you the kind of curls you want.

I touched on this a bit in my first hair post, but it bears repeating here: Curl “activators”, Shea butter, raw oil blends, creams, leave-in conditioners, texturizing shampoos… all of them are finessing you, beloveds. If your hair isn’t holding defined clumps of curls immediately after shampooing, then your hair is likely chronically dehydrated and needs to be detoxed.

We’re kinda raised to product chase because we’re told that the way our hair grows out of our heads is bad and needs to be fixed, and the $2.5 billion Black hair care industry is always eager to offer us placebos for our coin. We see someone with the hair texture and length we want and we immediately ask “what products do you use??” as if the answer is in a bottle when it’s really just genetics. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Greasing/oiling your scalp does not moisturize it, get rid of dandruff, or make your hair grow faster.

As a kid I remember my hairdresser using a fine toothed comb and “breaking up” the dandruff on my scalp before applying Sea Breeze to soothe it. Every single time, the dandruff came back worse. 😩 If I put oil on my scalp, it would take only a day before build up and large yellow flakes would rain out of my hair. But I thought because my scalp and my hair needed moisturizing that I couldn’t go without oils.

Well, I was right on one thing; my scalp and hair def needed moisture. But I wasn’t gonna get moisture from anything but water, and at the time I was avoiding water like the plague because I always had a fresh silk press or perm and I didn’t want my hair “reverting”.

If you have a scalp condition or chronic itchiness, you are very much making it worse by adding any of that to your head. The only solution is to wash your hair, loves. Yes, you may have to choose between looking “laid” and what’s actually good for your hair and scalp, but them’s the breaks.

The hair growth oils that line the shelves at Sally’s? Literally snake oil. Same goes for hair vitamins, biotin, MSM, rice water, JBCO, egg white/tea rinse/fruit or food products, African Black soap, rose water, etc. Nothing topical, save for specific medicated prescription drugs from a dermatologist, can make hair grow. Save ya money, hunny!

Co-washing and water-only washing doesn’t get your hair clean.

Conditioner is incapable of doing what shampoo does. You’re just gonna add layers of build up on your hair doing co-washes. Water-only cleansing is like never using soap in your laundry and expecting your clothes to be clean. 😬 Only putting shampoo on your scalp and carefully avoiding the length of your hair is the equivalent of white folks not washing their legs in the shower. Don’t do any of this.

I actually do not know where the myth started that Black folks hair is somehow too fragile to handle shampoo, a thing that is specifically formulated for hair. 😅 If shampoo is drying your hair out, you need to make sure you’re using the right kind of shampoo, not ditching shampoo altogether. If you need help, I touched on shampoo basics here!

Using a spray bottle to “refresh” your hair doesn’t do what you think it’s doing.

Tiny water droplets from a spray bottle only sit on the surface of your hair, even more so if your hair already has product in it. If your styles aren’t holding until your next wash, you may need to re-examine what you’re using, how you apply it, and how you set it. If you need to refresh a style or get moisture, nothing less than washing your hair will do.

Finger detangling or using a wide toothed comb or denman brush isn’t doing the job.

I know we’ve been raised to think that because our hair is tightly coiled, that we have to treat it with kid gloves. But we actually do more harm to our hair by not detangling correctly. Detangling is the act of getting shed hair out from your head so it doesn’t wrap up in your healthy hair and cause breakage. A wide toothed comb can’t do that, and neither can your fingers. A denman brush is ONLY supposed to be used to hold tension in the hair when blowdrying it straight. What you want is a Felicia Leatherwood brush and to use that bad boy in the shower right after putting conditioner on sopping wet hair, trust me.

Protective styles don’t exist.

Buns, braids, wigs… all of them look fantastic when done right and it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t wear them. But they are all just alternative styles; nothing is being protected. I know a lot of us love the low maintenance that having these styles provide, but I want us to examine why they are thought of as low maintenance: it’s because folks are less likely to wash their hair/detangle while having them.

Any style that discourages you from weekly hair washing cannot be protective. It instead promotes hair neglect. Yes, I know, it can cost thousands of dollars for those waist length box braids or sew in, but you paid for the labor that goes into those kinds of styles, not the ability to keep them in for as long as possible. Not touching your hair for weeks on end means you’ll have dehydrated hair with mad buildup to get rid of. And btw, that type of damage to the hair cannot be fixed in just one visit to the salon. For as many weeks as you go without washing your hair, you need that many weeks out of an alternative style with frequent washing to help it recover.

Dry hair is determined by its behavior, not how it feels.

This one has a lot of folks tripped out because logically, we should be able to just touch our strands and know that it needs moisture. Unfortunately, so many of us don’t know what our actual hair feels like without it being slathered in products, so the moment that we stop using them we think our hair is “dry” when it’s really just how our natural hair texture may feel. It’s def not easy in the beginning to let go of the familiarity a nicely oiled head of hair presents. 🥲

So, how do you know if you have dry hair? If it can’t hold a curl pattern without manipulation, is hydrophobic (if water doesn’t completely flatten hair to your scalp when you wash it, it’s not absorbing), is extremely difficult to detangle, breaks off easily, etc.

You don’t need to rinse your hair in cold water.

Only reason you should even consider it is if you have vivid color in your hair, but… lemme tell y’all sumn.

Years ago when I started dyeing my hair, it was typical for a permanent black hair dye to act like a semi-perm and wash almost completely out or turn grey in a few weeks. Now that I have a much better hair regimen that keeps my hair in the best health it can be, my semi-permanent fashion colors last for months until I decide to touch it up again. And I absolutely do not relish being cold in the shower, so I just use hot water.

The health of your hair matters more than any gimmicks or products you can use to fix a problem.

Long hair/shiny hair is not an indicator of health, it is an indicator of genetics.

I want DESPERATELY for us as a people to break the shackles of thinking that the only hair that matters is long and thick, or that someone who has long hair is an automatic authority on hair care.

If you want an idea of how long your hair can get, then look to your family. If your mom or dad don’t have hair touching their waist then it’s highly possible you were not blessed with the DNA to get your hair waist length either. And that’s okay! You aren’t any less valid. It will just save you a LOT of heartache to learn to embrace your hair the way it naturally is rather than to run around buying products and chasing haircare trends in hopes that a miracle will happen. Not to mention, I’ve seen a lot of folks with long hair but they ain’t had a trim in years and it absolutely shows. 😬

A lot of folks do not have shiny hair, that is once again due to genetics not hair health. Matte hair has a different surface texture and that’s absolutely fine! Only manufactured beauty standards glorify long and shiny hair.

Speaking of hair length…

Shrinkage is not your enemy.

A general rule is that the only hair length that matters is how you regularly wear it.

My hair stays comfortably at the nape of my neck now that I wear my curls 100% of the time. If I pull it taut, then it’ll reach mid-back. But I don’t plan on straightening my hair ever again to show that mid-back length, so… 🤷🏽‍♀️ I have short hair because that is how it lays without manipulation. And that’s fine.

Shrinkage doesn’t scare me because it’s what healthy curly hair DOES. If my hair springs like a coil and retains shape, then I’m doing something right! I have always wanted long hair, I won’t deny that. But if I have to stretch my natural hair in any way in order to GET that long hair, it’s not worth it to me. I’ll just wear a wig for a hot min if I wanna whip my hair back and forth.

Air drying your hair isn’t better than diffusing it with a hair dryer.

Another thing we’ve been told is that heat damages our hair and that air drying is best. That’s not necessarily true.

DIRECT heat can damage your hair (flat irons, blow outs, pressing combs). INDIRECT heat (hooded dryers, a diffuser attachment on a handheld dryer) does not. In fact, diffused heat sets your wash and gos/twist outs way better than air drying. It cuts down on frizz and ensures your style will last through the week.

Also, it’s better to dry your hair completely rather than wait hours for it to air dry and then maybe sleep on wet hair. Fun fact: Leaving your hair wet for too long can cause mold to grow in your hair! 😱 And if you lay a wet head on a pillow, the bacteria transfers to your pillowcase and you continue to sleep in that until you wash the pillow!

You can’t “lock moisture in” your hair.

Water evaporates. It’s what it’s gonna do. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Putting leave ins or oils on your hair in hopes that water stays in your strands longer isn’t a thing, despite what a lot of us have been told. The only thing you’re gonna be left with is greasy, dehydrated hair if you don’t wash it weekly.

Avoiding getting a hair cut will not grant you healthy or long hair.

Hair grows an average of half an inch per month, regardless of race. The belief that “Black hair doesn’t grow” is rooted in anti-Blackness. 😅 If you’re not seeing growth, then it’s most likely that your hair is simply breaking off faster than the rate of growth, or you have an underlying health issue that needs to be addressed by a doctor.

I know I used to hate hairdressers who seemed “scissor happy” because I was always chasing length, so I would often only tell them to “dust” the ends if they do anything. Now, I will grab my clippers and cut inches off my hair in a heartbeat if my hair starts looking raggedy. Clinging on to scraggly hair because it takes “so long to grow” doesn’t do you any favors, trust me. 😭 Take better care of your hair and you will retain length a lot easier, and that includes getting quarterly haircuts.

Porosity does not matter.

How many of us did this whole “put a strand of hair in a cup of water and see if it floats or sinks”? Well, what if I told you that it means absolutely nothing for everyday hair care? 😭 Porosity isn’t even a static state, so many things can change it on a dime!

The only time porosity matters is if you are getting a color service and that is only for your stylist to determine. And you will never see a stylist worth their salt putting your hair in a cup of water to figure it out. Also, a lot of “low” porosity hair is just product build up.

Using home remedies to address hair loss concerns doesn’t work.

No, it doesn’t matter that your grandma did black tea rinses regularly to stop her hair from shedding. It doesn’t matter what women in India do with their hair, either. This may be a hard pill to swallow, but it’s perfectly okay to evolve past things that aren’t truly helpful even if it’s a Black culture staple.

Please don’t be afraid to go to a dermatologist. 🥺 There’s even a Black Dermatologist Directory to reference if you don’t wanna go to just anybody. Yeah, it may seem pricey, but Dermatologists have the training to cut through the guesswork, pinpoint what the problem is and save you a LOT of time and pain. You don’t wanna fuck around and make your hair loss WORSE by doing psuedo-chemistry in your kitchen.

“Do what works for you” doesn’t have the mileage you think it does.

When people don’t want to hear that their current hair practices aren’t really helping them, they default to “Well, it works for ME!” or “Everyone’s hair is different!”

Nobody’s hair is so different that it doesn’t need a weekly wash with shampoo. Nobody’s hair is the magical unicorn that grew 4 inches in a month because they used JBCO. Your hair is not “built different”, and believing that it is will lead you to spending money on things you don’t need. Doing what works for you only comes after you have nailed the basics of healthy hair care, and it only varies in like… if you prefer to use styling foam to set your wash n go as opposed to gel. Or using one brand’s shampoo over another. Not “my hair likes butters and oils and staying in protective styles for months on end and is doing just fine, and you telling me otherwise is anti-Black”.

If you have unexamined hatred of your natural hair texture, then nothing in this long-ass post will hit for you. If a large part of your identity as a Black person is rooted in product chasing, protective styles and taking an entire business day to wash your hair, then a lot of this will offend you. I’m really sorry for that, and I am not here to argue with anybody. I’ll just tell you “if you like it, I love it” and go on about my business.

For everyone else, I really hope this post helps to shed some light on hair care and set you on a better journey that gives you more time and more confidence in your styles! 🥹

[scotianostra]

On May 10th 1850 Thomas Lipton, founder of the Lipton's grocery chain was born in Glasgow.

Before the big supermarkets took over we lhad ots of wee ones, every street had a Liptons, or a Galbraith even a Templetons!

Liptons was one of the originals started by a guy from Glasgow who built an empire and the tea brand still bares his name.

Born in a tenement flat in Crown Street, the Gorbals, Liptons parents were Irish and had left the Emerald Isle during the potato famine, the smallholding their family had farmed on for generations no longer viable they settled in Glasgow. 'Tommy' Lipton was educated at St. Andrew's Parish School close to Glasgow Green and by the time Tommy was 12 his parents had a shop in the street they lived selling ham, butter, and eggs. It was with the aim of supplementing his parents' limited income that Thomas Lipton left school at the age of thirteen and found employment as a printer's errand boy, and later as a shirtcutter. He also enrolled at a night school, the Gorbals Youth's School, during this period. He then found work as a cabin boy a steamer running between Glasgow and Belfast and was captivated by life aboard the ship and the stories told by sailors who had traveled to the US After being let go by the steamer company, Lipton quickly used the wages he had saved to purchase passage on a ship bound for the U.S., where he would spend five years working and traveling all over the country.

Back in Scotland on his 21st birthday, In 1871 Lipton opened his firstown shop at 101 Stobcross Street in Glasgow. In the heart of industrial Glasgow, full of smoke and fog, the shop was said to be so brightly lit that at night it became a beacon in the street. Goods were stacked in the American fashion, not for the convenience of the proprietors, but with the purpose of catching the customers’ attention. Lipton used another selling technique learned from his time in the States and from his Mother's shop.

When his parents had opened their small shop, Mrs. Lipton, rather than deal with middlemen at the markets, dealt directly with the farmers of her homeland. Lipton followed this example. He bought his bacon, eggs, butter and other produce directly from Irish farmers. The firm traded as a supermarket until 1982 when another group bought the shops that were to become Presto’s, the decision was made as they wanted to solely concentrate on the Tea business which it does to this day, in 2009 Lipton received a Corporate Green Globe Award for its work with the Rainforest Alliance.

As well as the tea and the shops but Lipton was also a keen sailor, he holds a place in the America’s Cup heart as being the most reliably consistent and deftly congenial loser. Five times he challenged for the Cup, five times being defeated. Despite his best laid plans and momentous effort to win the cup, the tea magnate simply didn’t cut the mustard. Nonetheless, he did have a penchant for beautiful boats. His last challenger, Shamrock V, never really stood a chance of winning the race but it did win marks for pure beauty. His well-publicised efforts to win the cup, which earned him a specially designed cup for “the best of all losers”, and also made his tea famous in the United States.

During the first world war Thomas Lipton helped organisations of medical volunteers. He placed his yachts at the disposal of the Red Cross, the Scottish Women's Hospitals Committee of Dr. Elsie Inglis, the Serbian Supporting Fund, etc., for the transport of medical volunteers (doctors and nurses) and medical supplies. Not content with just allowing his boats to be used he also took a keen interest in the work of Elsie Inglis and the womans hospital, visiting Serbia, where he insisted on humble lodgings and was renowned for his humility and modesty. .In addition to visiting many hospitals, where he encouraged doctors, nurses and soldiers, he found time to attend traditional fairs and to take a part in blackberry gathering and fishing. Sir Thomas Lipton was proclaimed an honorary citizen of the city of Niš.

Lipton even made the cover of Time magazine during 1924. He was knighted in 1901. Sir Thomas Lipton passed away on 2nd October 1931 in London and is buried alongside his parents and siblings in Glasgow's Southern Necropolis, his grave, like the man himself, a humble, simple understated affair, he bequeathed the majority of his fortune to his native city of Glasgow, including his yachting trophies, which are now on display at the Kelvingrove Gallery.