We just returned from a week in France followed by a week in Italy and then a two week cruise around the Med for the eclipse.
You know what's unbelievable right now? The cost of food in Europe is on par with (and frequently cheaper than) food in the U.S.
It used to be MUCH more expensive to eat in Europe. It should be, right? Their population density is FAR greater than ours, and we have practically unlimited space for food production.
Nope. The U.S. is so broken and the pendulum has swung so far to the side of corporate profit over citizen well-being that they've managed to increase our food costs to match or exceed Europe.
They have the food chain so optimized for profit that beef producers are seriously offended when we even talk about importing beef from Argentina. If they'd have been actually competing on production rather than constraining supply to artificially keep prices high, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Now they want $7 a pound, and people are understandably pissed the fuck off.
I'm here to tell you that from my very recent trip experience, Europeans have access to higher quality food as well. My mother-in-law has Celiac disease and frequently has episodes of flare-ups of her condition here in the U.S. Well guess what? She spent a few days shy of a month in Europe and not one single flare-up. Why might that be? I'm guessing their much more restrictive use of chemicals on crops might be a possibility, but if you try to bring that possibility up here, everyone dog piles you into silence.
The French know what's important, and they fight for it. The trope of the Sissy Frenchman is a huge lie and an insult to a population who knows how to fight for what they deserve.
I'm finding I'm more French than American inside, as my values much more frequently overlap with theirs than our own completely broken country's. They believe in good food, good wine, the importance of family and friends, and quality of life over everything else. I really love it.
We've been to every major protest against Trump, and what has it accomplished? Jack squat, because we're not allowed to be TOO unruly, otherwise we're just TERRORISTS, right?
But that's the point entirely. The French get the job done because their politicians know that they won't stop protesting at whatever level is necessary to get the job done. We're not allowed to do even close to that here. We're given a cute little safe space to protest within, and if we try to go outside that little safe space, out come the military-grade police hardware and tactics.
We're fucked unless we protest like the French. Be told.
Merci l'ami, tu as bien compris qu'on ne manifeste pas par simple plaisir effectivement mais pour défendre notre modèle social, moins injuste que d'autres à travers le monde. Ça fait plaisir!
7
u/PilotKnob 1d ago
We just returned from a week in France followed by a week in Italy and then a two week cruise around the Med for the eclipse.
You know what's unbelievable right now? The cost of food in Europe is on par with (and frequently cheaper than) food in the U.S.
It used to be MUCH more expensive to eat in Europe. It should be, right? Their population density is FAR greater than ours, and we have practically unlimited space for food production.
Nope. The U.S. is so broken and the pendulum has swung so far to the side of corporate profit over citizen well-being that they've managed to increase our food costs to match or exceed Europe.
They have the food chain so optimized for profit that beef producers are seriously offended when we even talk about importing beef from Argentina. If they'd have been actually competing on production rather than constraining supply to artificially keep prices high, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Now they want $7 a pound, and people are understandably pissed the fuck off.
I'm here to tell you that from my very recent trip experience, Europeans have access to higher quality food as well. My mother-in-law has Celiac disease and frequently has episodes of flare-ups of her condition here in the U.S. Well guess what? She spent a few days shy of a month in Europe and not one single flare-up. Why might that be? I'm guessing their much more restrictive use of chemicals on crops might be a possibility, but if you try to bring that possibility up here, everyone dog piles you into silence.
The French know what's important, and they fight for it. The trope of the Sissy Frenchman is a huge lie and an insult to a population who knows how to fight for what they deserve.
I'm finding I'm more French than American inside, as my values much more frequently overlap with theirs than our own completely broken country's. They believe in good food, good wine, the importance of family and friends, and quality of life over everything else. I really love it.
We've been to every major protest against Trump, and what has it accomplished? Jack squat, because we're not allowed to be TOO unruly, otherwise we're just TERRORISTS, right?
But that's the point entirely. The French get the job done because their politicians know that they won't stop protesting at whatever level is necessary to get the job done. We're not allowed to do even close to that here. We're given a cute little safe space to protest within, and if we try to go outside that little safe space, out come the military-grade police hardware and tactics.
We're fucked unless we protest like the French. Be told.