Produce Less – Exploring Degrowth

Eco-localists argue that globalization is authoritarian by nature: increasingly, multinational corporations rule the world. Individuals and communities are powerless by comparison. Eco-localists make the following recommendations to governments and communities: Incentivize cooperative, worker-owned businesses. Promote the meeting of human needs through non-market means—i.e., the sharing economy. Focus on the well-being of people and nature instead of simply aiming to grow GDP. Tax the rich and provide more economic security (including education and healthcare) for lower-income people. Re-localize production by regulating big corporations so that smaller, local producers and sellers can remain competitive. Strengthen the rights of communities (including the rights of nature) and the fabric of democracy.

The country is facing an extraordinary situation. The capital (and some provinces) are under siege by heavily armed paramilitary forces. They are responsible for an untold number of killings, kidnapping, rapes, acts of arson and pillage. Entire swaths of the city have been abandoned. Hospitals, schools, businesses destroyed. Families displaced from homes, living in makeshift settlements. A total upending of everyday life. Food production has plummeted, while blocked roads prevent agricultural products from making it to markets. Prices of basic staples have more than quadrupled. Alarming signs that hunger and famine are rising. Access to basic services like education, healthcare, sanitation – fragile in better times – are non-existent now in a growing number of areas. Cases of cholera are increasing. And, given the uncertainty surrounding the fate of hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the US – whose remittances home are a lifeline – the situation looks to worsen.

NATO was never a good idea gone wrong. It was founded to crush communist, socialist, and anti-colonial movements in Europe and around the world. The organization was born on April 4, 1949, when foreign ministers from 12 nations came together in Washington, D.C. to sign the 1100-page North Atlantic Treaty. Its original members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty proclaimed its commitment to peace and the principles of the UN Charter, but “the real glue that brought NATO countries together was opposition to communism and socialism.”

Several new national and international research surveys have warned that hazardous microplastics are present in our breath, drinking water, and crops. While foreign markets and businesses may have their own motives behind certain conclusions, the fact remains that in developing countries, governments are preoccupied with addressing fundamental needs such as food, clothing, and shelter, along with fighting poverty. As a result, they often fail to prioritize high health standards set by international norms.

Black students are losing classrooms, homes, and support systems after climate events.

Propaganda thrives on selective amnesia, often bolstered by political alliances. The strong relationship between Israel and the United States has enabled the mainstreaming of Zionist narratives in American media. Israel is often described as the “51st state” of the United States — yet unlike actual states, Israel pays no taxes to Washington while receiving approximately $10 million in daily U.S. aid, the highest foreign aid allocation given to any nation.

Unhealthy food and beverage companies powerfully undermine the eating habits of young people by deploying ubiquitous ads that encourage poor dietary choices and increase the risk of serious disease and premature death, according to a sweeping new study published in Obesity Reviews. The more high-fat, high-sugar, and salty food ads young people see, the more of those products they consume—and the higher the risk that they may develop obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other diet-related diseases. Companies also disproportionately target adolescents, lower-income communities, and Black and Latino youth with the marketing of health-harming food and beverages.

Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, disrupts female hormones and damages the ovaries and uterus in ways that can make it more difficult for women to get pregnant, according to a new review of human and animal research. The study, published in Reproductive Sciences (March 21, 2025), also found that glyphosate may be tied to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis, due to its endocrine-disrupting capabilities and reproductive toxicity.

Degrowth communism. It is hard to think of two more triggering words. Words which raise red flags. It is difficult to conceive of two more seemingly contradictory terms. Degrowth, which to many raises images of voluntary poverty in a somewhat bucolic, post-industrial, neo-anarchistic setting. Contrasted with communism, which stirs up pictures of Soviet smokestacks, forced industrialization to drive increased production. That gets it all wrong, says Japanese author Kohei Saito. Degrowth, while implying a lower level of material consumption, means abundance in values not captured in Gross Domestic Product statistics, particularly the most valuable, our time, says Saito.