//chuckles// We're in danger in Those Public Entries

Republicans now control the House, Senate, and presidency.

Stock up now, babes, the tariffs are coming.

And before anyone says “Oh calm down, it’s only going to be on imported foods–” Yeah. Like coffee. Where is coffee grown, Tragedeigh?! And rice? And bananas? And citrus fruits, like oranges and mandarins? And avocados? And olive oil? And chocolate? Do you really think carob (which is also imported!) is a good substitute for chocolate? It’s not! It’s fucking disgusting! I’ve had it before, and it’s gag-inducing.

Most of the world’s cacao and coffee beans are grown in central and southern Africa. Most of the fruit you see in stores is grown in central and south America. Most of our sugar is imported from Brazil, India, and China. Mangoes (my favorite fruit) are primarily grown in India. Rice is also typically imported from India, or Thailand, depending on which type you’re getting. Oh, and if you’re thinking, “But I drink tea, I’ll be fine!”? Tea is also grown in, and imported from, India, primarily.

The USDA has a pretty nifty Excel spreadsheet, showing just how much of our food is imported. Short answer: About 60% of it. Especially during winter, and especially in, say, my neck of the woods (New England), where the growing season is shorter and the types of crops we can grow are limited to “anything that can survive Zone 4, and sometimes Zone 3, weather.” (A’course, climate change is shifting the growing zones, but no one wants to talk about that.)

The continental US does have the right climate to grow a lot of food, and a pretty good range of crops… But not as much as Americans tend to eat. And, you know, waste. And not everyone has the luxury of growing their own vegetables. Speaking from experience, gardening is both expensive and time-consuming, and a lot of times, you’re at the mercy of the weather. //has flashbacks to the horrendous growing season that was summer 2023 in Vermont// And next year, I have to let my most prolific garden plot rest, since it’s grown tomatoes, squash, corn, and peppers for the last two years, and the soil is depleted; I’ll need to put compost, Moo Doo, and probably some coco coir in it, just to get it back in growing shape. (That’s just the nature of growing your own tomatoes/squash/peppers/corn, they need a lot of nutrients, and those mainly come from the soil. You have to rest and manually replenish your gardens at least every couple of years.)

“Oh, I’ll just go vegan, then!” Good luck, bubbeleh: Most of the soy products in the US are made from imported soy beans. If you’re like me, and you dislike tofu but like tempeh, you’re also SOL, because tempeh is imported from Indonesia. Oh, and dry pulses (legumes, beans, the like)? The US imports more of them than even I thought.

Again, sixty percent of the US food supply is imported from other countries. And I might have gotten a D in economics in high school (that wasn’t actually my fault, but none of us has the time for that story now), but even I know that the tariff is paid by the country importing the goods, not the one supplying them.

And no, tariffs will not “encourage more American companies to manufacture locally.” Here’s the explainer:

Yawl. MIT and Harvard have free lectures, on YouTube, about economic principles, including micro-, macro-, and business. I know there’s at least one printing of Economics for Dummies floating around on eBay or at your local used book store. I am begging you, learn how tariffs work. If it doesn’t inspire you to start building guillotines, it will at least armor you against all the surprised Pikachu faces from MAGAs and other Trump voters in the coming months.