THEYRE FREELANCE CONTRACTORS AND PAY FOR THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT :bird-screm-2:

THEY STILL FOLLOW SOCIAL DISTANCING PROTOCOLS DESPITE THE SULFUR EVISCERATING THEIR LUNGS :amerikkka-clap:

    • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Organic ag is built on a lot of stuff that people who eat organic food should balk at.

        • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I'm pretty ambivalent on the GMO front - I think if it were treated more as a common good (developing and releasing GM strains by public research institutions to farmers for free instead of on a for-profit business model that has to be protected by draconian IP laws, e.g.) and gene targets were selected more in terms of sustainability and nutrition instead of finding ways to cram a small set of crops even further into our industrial monocropping production system, it would have less opposition.

          But even if you're opposed on principle, organic crops are often fertilized with conventional corn and soy. So that's fun.

          • kristina [she/her]
            hexagon
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            So personally I have a couple of GMO stuff I've planted but theyre actually designed to reduce fungal growths on native plants in order to bolster beneficial pollinator populations. They were designed by some universities to stop the monoculture issues and overuse of fertilizer. I like them cause they pretty and require no effort to plant and use :shrug-outta-hecks: Hummingbirds love this shit and snort it like crack

            • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              There's tons of really cool potential applications for using genetic modification to improve diversity. Are you familiar with the American chestnut reintroduction project?

              • kristina [she/her]
                hexagon
                ·
                2 years ago

                I'm vaguely aware of it. IMO the big boost for GMOs is it lets us avoid all of these dangerous (environmentally and for human health) situations for mining. The idea that GMOs can cause cancer or something which is widely touted is very nebulous, also the idea that 'natural is better' is pretty psycho because plenty of 'natural things' can kill you within a weekend.

                • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  It's pretty cool; the idea of the project was to engineer a way around an introduced pathogen that the species was never able to adapt to naturally and re-establish it in the wild.

                  I agree that the health risks are overblown - most of the time the gene expression isn't even in the part of the plant that gets eaten. The hysteria is silly. But at the same time herbicide resistant crops are known to encourage higher herbicide applications so I guess there's a case for indirect impacts :shrug-outta-hecks:

        • Quimby [any, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          the big problem is that GMO just encompasses such a broad scope of things. I'm mostly pro-GMO, but the more synthetic the methods get, the more concerned I get.

          If there's one thing we've learned from history, it's that nothing is 100% good with no drawbacks. If they ever engineer a tomato that tastes like chocolate, requires a single drop of water to grow, and has all your daily nutritional requirements, I guarantee you we'll find out 20 years later that it causes super cancer or something.

          • newerAccountWhoDis [they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I guarantee you we’ll find out 20 years later that

            it's unable to thrive on it's own, but it's pollen is so potent that natural populations of adjacent plants are contaminated and doomed to go extinct.

        • newerAccountWhoDis [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          GMO is not compatible with capitalism. As long as there's IP, GMO will be used to bankrupt farmers and make them dependent. Also, creating seed that's resistant to poison so the poison can be sprayed on every inch of this world regularly has been a catastrophe for biodiversity.

          • kristina [she/her]
            hexagon
            ·
            2 years ago

            tbf nothing is compatible with capitalism :shrug-outta-hecks:

    • comi [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      i thought oil basically shit sulfur?

      • kristina [she/her]
        hexagon
        ·
        2 years ago

        it does, but it doesnt stop these mines from existing because of the high demand for sulfur

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It's crazy reading The Condition of the Working Class in England when Engels talks about how virtually no one working in some of these jobs will live past 40, the job itself is literally killing the workers, and the workers work in these jobs knowing full well what's likely to happen to them. Just some really grim shit and nothing has changed except the imperial core has shifted that kind of work to the global south, so we all get to pretend that capitalism is just wonderful and makes everyone wealthier!

  • Darthsenio_Mall [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    god damn that's wild. especially fucked when they mention how the tourists come with gas masks to watch the miners who don't have gas masks of their own. how could someone not give away their mask to a person working there every day? i guess the same way you could go there and not automatically respect the shit out of those guys (he mentions near the end that for foreign tourists, working as a sulfur miner isn't a job that's respected).

    • machiabelly [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Its also likely the mask is provided by a tourist company, so it isnt theirs to give. At least they actually tip them though

        • machiabelly [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah fucking obviously. I cant even imagine how horrible id feel with my mask looking at someone wearing a wet rag.

          • Darthsenio_Mall [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            for real! like not only is the shit hella caustic and terrible for you but on top of that it's gotta smell absolutely beyond words nightmarishly terrible

  • mao_zedonk [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    THEY STILL FOLLOW SOCIAL DISTANCING PROTOCOLS DESPITE THE SULFUR EVISCERATING THEIR LUNGS

    ? Why would it be bad to follow social distancing protocols?

    • kristina [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      no its more to show the contrast to america who doesnt take it seriously, while these dudes inhaling sulfur fumes regularly take it seriously

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The damage that sulfur gas does to their lungs probably makes them extra vulnerable.

      • Quimby [any, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        yeah. like, if you work in a sulfur mine, you're absolutely trading decades of your life. I would understand not giving a fuck about absolutely anything if you worked in a sulfur mine. and yet, here they are, trying their best anyway.

  • JamesConeZone [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    PAY FOR THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT

    Coal miners in the late 1800s/early 1900s USA had to do this too. Sounds like this company read about the horrible conditions that literally led to armed conflict and went "yeah let's do that :nicholson-yes:"

    • CommCat [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Always afraid for the Indonesian left, the fascists there are always itching to violently suppress them again with the full support of the US and its Western Allies.

  • Deeze [e/em/eir]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the treats must flow, and by treats I mean juicy bricks of delicious sulfur apparently