Piracy by Patent talks about how the Neem tree in India has many uses for the people, like medicine and pesticides. However, the companies have come in and patent products made from the tree, acting like they created these products when they have existed for long before the companies found out. Unfortunately, this is not something that happened only once, there are lots of examples of companies taking credit for things they did not create. It kinda reminds me of something like kombucha, where coporations took credit when bringing it over to the west when it was a actually traditional medicine from China.
Avoiding the Local Trap speaks about the concept of the "local trap" where we automatically assume local is better. This is not always the case, as it really depends on the indivual buisness and how it operates. It brings to my mind when I go to a local resturant because I want to support a local buisness, but the food isn't great or the place is not clean. While going to a chain resturant, and having nice food and good service. While I like supporting local resturants, I don't want to support unclean conditions. Maybe a local buisness is a boutique but all the clothes are extremely marked up, I would not feel great about buying the same piece of clothing for a lot more money even if it is local.
Food Miles and Local Eating says the average food travels 1,500 miles, which is not a completely accurate number. Seeing that number makes it seem like most food is traveling crazy far, but there is a lot of food coming from the area around you. Just like the previous article, people like the idea of local, and I also enjoy the idea of local. When I sit down at my local ice cream place/resturant and have the amazing fresh strawberry soft serve that comes from the local farms, I enjoy it so much better than going to a Cold Stone and grabbing an overpriced scoop of ice cream. There is a difference, and while food traveling far is not inheritantly bad(and nessecary for a lot of foods) there will always be something different about having some nice fresh local fruit.
3 comments:
Hello, Hadley! I like your insights about the articles, especially mentioning the Neem tree in India and how its property was took, and not just in India but many places. This raises the question of intellectual property, and how can we change to protect smaller communities from big corporations seeking profit. One good example that I remember is that the penicillin discovery was not used to profit, but the doctors chose to make the patent open to become accessible.
I like the comparison you make to kombucha, as that's something I considered responding to the article with as well. It's important for people to keep their ideas unless they receive appropriate compensation for them, especially if it's a significant contributor to a local culture. Companies do this all the time, and it's frustrating to see but its unfortunately reality.
Hi Hadley, I agree with your point about the "local trap", and how just because something is small business or local doesn't necessarily mean that the quality of the product or service is better, or that the business is ran in a more ethical way. While supporting small business is important, they often deal with many of the problems you described, and it is important that all business are held to a certain standard, even if a small company doesn't have as many resources as a larger one might have.
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