Produce Less – Exploring Degrowth

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.

Avigail settlers wish to take over and annex Palestinian lands of Rakeez. On April 15, 2025 Rakeez resident Sheikh Sa’id awoke to the sound of heavy equipment entering from Avigail into his fields. Two days later Avigail settlers returned to the field. When Sheikh Sa’id and his 15-year-old son arrived they were attacked by the settlers. They pushed the son to the ground and a security officer pushed down the father and shot one of his legs. Sa’id was kept in a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit as a criminal detainee. Blood vessels in the hit leg were irreversibly damaged to the point that it had to be amputated above the knee. From Israel’s predatory point of view, this story is a minor point in the continuous mass slaughter and amputations that know no end. From our point of view, this story is a whole world.

While Trump is operating an overtly barbarous campaign against immigrants, refugees, LGBTQ people, and other groups, the continued use of Guantánamo demonstrates that this is much bigger than just one president: the United States is a carceral-imperial state.

Most infant formulas in the U.S. contain mostly added sugars instead of natural lactose, which experts say can harm early development, a new report from the University of Kansas shows. “Infants may consume upwards of 60 grams of added sugars per day, or the equivalent of two soft drinks per day if they are entirely formula-fed,” researchers say in the study, published yesterday [Feb. 24, 2025] in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.

Musk first announced his intention to build a space-based internet, which he would eventually call Starlink, in January 2015. He had plans to settle Mars, then the moons of Jupiter, and maybe asteroids too. All those space colonies would have to be connected via satellite-based communication; Starlink itself might one day be adapted for this use. Indeed, Starlink’s terms of service ask customers to affirm that they “recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities.”

For a CEO, work is often a seamless blend of decision-making, networking, and strategising—activities that can happen anywhere, from the back of a car to a five-star hotel. For their employees, however, work is defined by rigid hours, physical presence, and often mundane, repetitive tasks. While a boss may count a coffee meeting as part of their “workday,” an employee spends hours waiting outside the boss’s cabin for a signature, approvals or troubleshooting office technology late into the evening, none of which factors into their formal work hours.

Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, may significantly raise the risk of an increasingly common chronic liver disease—even at low exposure levels, according to a new review of more than 40 scientific studies published over the past 17 years. It found a growing body of research links exposure to glyphosate (GLY)—and the commercial herbicides that contain it—to negative health outcomes for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).

The Food And Drug Administration has laid off more than 140 employees including veterinarians, some of who work on tackling antimicrobial resistance. Efforts to curb the use of antimicrobials in farm animals and stem resistance to crucial antimicrobial medicines are at risk after layoffs at the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine earlier this month, warn legal experts and public health interest groups.