Gas > rationing in the 70's worked even though we grumbled
> about it. It might even have been good for > us!
>
>
> Are > you aware that the Saudis are boycotting American > products? In addition, they are gouging us on > oil prices. > Shouldn't > we return the favor? Can't > we take control of our own destiny and let these giant oil > importers know who REALLY generates their profits, their > livings? How about leaving American Dollars in America > and reduce the import/export deficit?

> An > appealing remedy might be to boycott their GAS > . Every time you fill up your car you can avoid > putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia . > Just purchase gas from companies > that don't import their oil from the > Saudis.

> Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every > time I fill up my tank, I'm sending my money to people > who I get the impression want me, my family and my > friends dead. The > following gas companies import Middle Eastern > oil:
>
>
> Shell.....................................
> 205,742,000 barrels
>
>
> Chevron/Texaco.................... 144,332,000
> barrels
>
>
> Exxon
> /Mobil........................
> 130,082,000 barrels
>
>
> Marathon/Speedway.............
> 117,740,000 barrels
>
>
> Amoco...................................
> 62,231,000 barrels
>
>
> And > CITGO oil is imported from Venezuela by Dictator Hugo Chavez
> who hates America and openly avows our economic > destruction! (We pay Chavez's regime > nearly $10 Billion per year in oil > revenues!)
>
>
> The > U.S. currently imports 5,517,000 barrels of crude oil per > day from OPEC. If you do the math at $100 per barrel, > that's over $550 million PER DAY ($200 > BILLION per year!) handed over to OPEC, many of whose > members are our confirmed enemies!!!!! It won't stop > here - oil prices could go to $200 a barrel or higher if we > keep buying their product.
>
>
> Here > are some large > companies that > do not import > Middle Eastern oil:
>
>
> Sunoco...........................
> 0 barrels
> Conoco.......................... 0
> barrels
> Sinclair.........................
> 0 barrels
> BP /
> Phillips.................
> 0 barrels
>
>
> Hess.
> ............................... 0 barrels
> ARC0............................... 0
> barrels
>
>
> Maverick...........................
> 0 barrels
>
>
> Flying
> J. ............................ 0
> barrels
>
>
> Valero............................ 0
> barrels
> Murphy Oil USA * ............. 0
> Sold at Wal-Mart , gas is from South Arkansas and > fully USA owned and produced.
>
>
>
> *Not > only that but they give scholarships to all children in
> their town who finish high school and are legal US > citizens..
>
>
> All > of this information is available from the U.S. Department of
> Energy and each company is required to state where they get > their oil and how much they are importing.
>

While I agree with the spirit of this email that's once again making the rounds, the Snopes.com site which references it points out a lot of discrepancies in the information - for instance Valero is listed as importing 0 barrels of oil, while in fact the 2007 figures show that it is in the top four companies importing oil from the Persian Gulf. Here's the URL for this article...it's worth a read.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/saudigas.asp

you are right and i was wrong. i should have checked snopes first. i usually do.

I saw a commercial last night about some group or company that makes (not sure that's the right word)/provides American energy. Naturally, I can't remember the name of it. I'd much prefer to buy American.

Not just energy, but almost everything.

Just saw an article online that the US can't keep up with its need for bullets. The article said they're making them around the world for us... what is wrong with this picture? Why isn't the US government putting Detroit factory workers to work making the bullets? And other Americans besides Detroiters, of course.

And then there's food. My frozen broccoli and cauliflower come from Mexico. My shrimp says it's from Thailand. The labeling on the beef in the store says it comes from "Mexico, Canada or the US." You know if it were US beef they'd say so straight out, and in bigger lettering. My Dole frozen mango package says they are "manufactured" and "packed" in the USA BUT the stamp below that says "Product of Peru." A California or Jersey distributor is just that. They may be distributing a product from anywhere else in the world and usually are.

I have railed at store managers for having only Mexican grapes available when they were advertised as California grapes. Happily, there seems to be a law that they must label produce with its country of origin, so you can check.

Occasionally it's worthwhile to buy an import. Wal-mart carries scallions from Mexico in very nice bags. The scallions are large and gorgeous, and bargain priced as well. I adore oranges and will get a South African one now and then out of season. Belgian chocolates - but these aren't efforts to undercut American workers for corpoate profits.

This has been a rather disconnected rant. This is a major pet peeve of mine, that I no longer have the choice to buy American in most cases.

Lisanne - I totally agree with you. I'd prefer to "buy American" but it doesn't seem like anything is made or grown here anymore. Everything is imported, and the jobs are exported. Importing bullets to fight the wars we're in? Makes me gnash my teeth and want to scream.

Butterflywing - Please don't think in terms of right/wrong. That sounds so harsh. I'd already Snoped this when I got the email last week, so I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Besides, we all look out for each other, which is why I posted the follow-up info. Your post is still an excellent reminder that we each need to do whatever we can to be good citizens.

lisanne,

they import them because it's cheaper than paying farmers and farm workers here the minimum wage to produce it. as to the bullets, again, cheaper to import because when you figure in manufacturer's taxes, toxic waste laws, worker's benefits, and wages it's less expensive to import than to produce. countries with more predictable weather conditions can be counted on to supply produce all year round. actually, americans should just eat what's in season, like our parents did. in other parts of the world the luxuries that we take for granted, like grapes in the winter, are unheard of. unless you live in california.

that doesn't mean i advocate buying imports. i try very hard not to. for instance, wegman's is dedicated to buying local produce during the growing season. and because they buy locally, they are polluting less and keeping their costs down on those items.
but our growing season is relatively short, compared to costa rica or mexico.
also, when you think of the gas used to truck produce to the east coast from california, it really jacks up the price as well as creating enormous pollution.

so, what's the answer? we've dug ourselves into a hole and can't climb out.

i forgot to add this:

when a farmer dies, his children sell off the farm to developers. the money they get is more than they would get working their butts off for years, maybe the rest of their lives. as a result there are fewer farms and more people to feed. with fewer farms, can this country really feed us all anymore? only if we eat more sparingly than we do. i know i eat more than my share. we really want it all. more food, more variety and lower prices, less pollution and less guilt, more work for our workers, more benefits but lower taxes. ask anyone in europe and see how they live and what it costs them. if gas were more expensive, we would buy less from arab countries. we would walk or ride bikes. our kids would not be fat. we could save money. we would thumb our noses. we would plan our driving tasks.
we wouldn't have to deal with people who want to kill us. who wants to be first? raise your hand :mrgreen:

enough preaching.

The uniforms our troops wear are from China, too. We send them the technology, then pay them to use it. Makes it harder for those of us looking for jobs here in the US

The bullets is a funny one, here's what is happening with those. The US won't aloud reloads anymore, so they send the shells to China or where ever and they grind them up for other stuff, and we buy it back.

we are ONE strange country!

Oh, Snopes has been outed. It's a website started by a married couple for fun. It's only those two that keep up the site. They don't verify much, just go with what they think or want you to think. I wouldn't trust Snopes as the last word on anything.

2wheelwoman, butterflywing: Yup, exactly, agreed. Labor costs less in third-world countries, even with the extra shipping costs. I'm not against offering imported produce out of season. IMO, that's a valid reason to import. I almost never buy it out of season because it used to be expensive and not very good, but both of those things are improving. And when imports are better, such as Belgian chocolate and Indian cotton shirts (well, I like their cotton), that's another valid reason to import.

Yes, B'wing, I know cross-country shipping isn't good for the environment, but it's better than overseas shipping. Wegman's btw, imports some of their produce. I've seen Mexican lettuce and grapes there, though it was Giant I was complaining about for advertising Cali grapes and offering Mexican ones.

Moonpi & reneebobby, I'm shaking my head in disgust at these new facts you've posted.

BellaBoo, I was horrified to read that Snopes.com had been outed, so I went off to see for myself. Apparently an email full of misinformation and false accusations was sent about Snopes.com. When factcheck.org, part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, which in turn is part of the Universoty of Pennsylvania, looked into it, they found the email to be wrong, and they verified Snopes.com's work. For anyone interested: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/

there are somecountries i will not buy from regardless of the savings. i would rather do without.

i will not buy from china, . EVER.
i will not buy from arab countries for a variety of reasons - take your pick.
i will not buy from dictator-ruled ruled countries, even if our own country
needs to keep up relations with them. i don't.
i will not buy from countries that do not respect this country.
i will not by from a country who seeks our aid and turns around and
harms us.
i will not buy from countries who practice genocide.
i will not buy from countries who allow drugs to come into this country.
if we wanted them, we would make our own and create jobs.
AND i will not buy from stores who are known to MANUFACTURER their
own goods in 3rd world countries for the savings of $$. they should be
highly taxed by our own government to offset the cost of
unemployment that it creates here. among those are nike,and,
sorry, wal-mart, two of the worst.

i can't not shop in stores that sell imports, because there are none, but i can make my loud voice heard a teeny bit.
:evil:

Whyever wouldn't you buy from China? I'm distressed by not having other options, but almost every non-food item I get seems to be from China these days. How doyou avoid that? Oh, do they count as a dictator-ruled country? How do you ever find clothes?

Arab countries - ah, so that's why you're up on gasoline. Do you have a special supplier?

Guess you do without Colombian coffee and all that Mexican meat and produce, since both countries are known as drug-origin countries.

Yup, Wal-mart I knew about, but as much as I abhor the practice, I can't afford to pay higher prices for my principles just now. I can say that I buy New Balance, not Nike (thus supporting the workers up in Bahstahn, supposedly).

You're admirable, and if we all could shop that way, it would force manufacturing to return to the US.

the reason i'm down on china is that the living conditions, especially on those living off the sales of technological appliance pieces is abhorrent to me. that anyone is allowed to burn terrible chemicals to retrieve saleable bits is mind-shattering. those cancer-ridden people and deformed children are the direct result of poor people who do what they have to to live. this is a country that will not not accept their complicity in world-wide pollution and actually leaves people no choice but to create pollution. anything that they manufacture can be had elsewhere. the quality of their goods is, in many cases, questionable if not downright bad. hardware, in particular, is carelessly made to measurement and frequently is not accurate. clothing is of poor quality unless you can pay high prices for designer labels. for that same price, you can buy that here, made by immigrants in our own sweatshops. toys are often not safe, meds are not reliable. the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. they do not promote import-export balances. they ship but do not import. so what if their own people cant afford to live decent lives? it is a secretive, closed society that does not allow media into itself. let's see....have i forgotten abything?

In my case, I don't drink coffee anyway, so it makes no difference to me.

I've seen the news reports of Mexican produce and bacterial problems, too. I prefer not to buy it for the most part, but more because I dislike passing over our workers and farmers. But again, an import of superior quality I will buy. The bacteria problems are exceptions, and imports do get inspected. It's not foolproof, but it's some protection.

Since living in France, I've been impressed by the French's sense of national pride. Fresh produce in the supermarkets is all local - veg, meat, dairy etc, in many cases the actual farm is named on the packaging. And nearly everyone has a French car (Peugeot, Citroen, Renault). The irony is that while in England, I'd go out of my way to AVOID French products (except wine!) now that's nearly all I buy!

I completely support the idea of buying local for nationalistic reasons AND to avoid indirectly supporting sick regimes (in England a while back the big one was South Africa - no one would buy stuff from there while aparteid was at it's worst!) If we all did our bit then coutries such as China and the middle Eastern countries would be forced to change. Re China - I don't want to be too graphic here but I once worked with a guy who'd visited Chinese orphanages when he was an aid worker - the stories he told of what he saw were enough to make me avoid Chinese products where possible.

There are also environmental issues - the more locally you can buy, the less impact you have on the planet in terms of carbon emmissions. The ideal is to home produce and I do as much as I can but I'm lucky that I have the land, the time and the knowledge. Not everyone has that option I know. But supprting local producers is the next best thing. :D

This is a great topic, BW, thanks for starting it!

PS - The big supermarkets are greatly to blame for food being imported from far away - they want specific products, packaged a certain way and the small local guys can't always meet the specs. A farmer my Mum knew in the UK produced a large amount of raspberries once for a big supermarket chain and at the last minute they changed the packaging spec - he'd already packaged his crop but they wouldn't take it anymore so he ended up having to sell off as much as he could locally but a large amount was dumped.

Recently I heard a story on French radio that 2 lorries had crashed on the motorway. They were both carrying tomatoes - one from Holland headed for Spain and yup, you guessed it, the other from Spain headed to Holland. It's crazy! :shock:

i

Sorry for going off topic - any excuse to climb up on my soap box! :oops: :D

welcome. there are a few of us here.

Guilty!

Dead Dinosaurs

are you talking about moi? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: