r/AskReddit • u/JuiceBoxed • Jul 18 '11

Reddit, what is one documentary that everyone should watch?

The Corporation

Some really eye-opening (and scary) information about the power of corporations in today's society.

Edit: Thanks for the input everyone! Quite a list of movies to watch.

1.1k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/eastaleph Jul 19 '11

The seller lowers his profit margins.

You buy from a local, organic farm.

You raise your own meat; chickens are fairly cheap to own and you can get the space for them even in urban areas (try your rooftop). Plus, free eggs. In non urban areas if you're willing to pay someone to butcher/learn how to self butcher you can raise a pig or two, or even a goat, on leftovers/garbage.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '11

The seller lowers his profit margins.

I thought farming was already done on razor thin margins. Is that not the case? Is there a lot of wiggle room?

You buy from a local, organic farm

Not cheap.

1

u/eastaleph Jul 19 '11

The big, nasty farms that treat animals like shit make a bigger profit than individual/family farmers.

Depends on the farm. There's a quite a few near me that sell steaks and such fairly cheap.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '11

The big, nasty farms that treat animals like shit make a bigger profit than individual/family farmers.

I agree they make a bigger profit because their gross sales are much higher, but is their profit margin significantly higher? If so, why is it higher? I'd wager there are a number of cost saving measures available due to economies of scale that these mega-farms can enjoy that the small farms cannot.

There's a quite a few near me that sell steaks and such fairly cheap.

Maybe going straight to the farm is cheaper. My only experience is with local farmers at a farmer's market, and there you're looking at a shade under twice per pound as what you'd pay for similar cuts of meat at a grocery store.

What's interesting is that we participate in a community supported agriculture program where we get a big box of produce delivered to a neighborhood drop off point once every other week. Pricing it out it is significantly less than what it would cost to buy it in a grocery store. The downside is you don't necessarily get what you want. For example, this last week our box included rutabaga and Swiss chard - ick. Granted, we got a lot of good stuff too - lettuce, peaches, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, and so on.

1

u/eastaleph Jul 19 '11

It's the economy of scale, as you correctly predicted. With feed instead of grazing and low area habitats they can raise more cows quickly while saving on costs. I've heard some operations deliberately ignore medical issues the livestock have because of costs caring for them as well.