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It’s so funny to see capitalism trying to cover it’s ass. Since when does having a great harvest translate to free food for everyone? Gimme a break. The reason those 4 million kilos of potatoes are being given away is that the capitalist who was holding the futures contract for these potatoes decided to take a loss instead of have the potatoes delivered to market, since the price of potatoes would not have yielded him a profit. The point of capitalism is to yield a profit, even for life’s basic necessities. In this case, it wasn’t even the futures trader that arranged the giveaway- it was the people who did. The trader didn’t plant or harvest a single potato, but he was placed in charge of four million kilos of food. It really goes to show that we don’t need these people at all- we can manage much better without them.
Auto-translation of linked article:
Try to imagine a quantity of four million kilograms of potatoes. Four million kilograms - that’s 4000 tons, the weight of 800 adult elephants, stacked as high as the Berlin TV Tower. It’s a lot that could fill hundreds of thousands of people.
These potatoes are stored in the halls of a farm south of Leipzig, neatly sorted, cool and dry, best food quality. And they have a problem: no one wants them.
The story of these potatoes is a story about the absurdities of our food system. A trader had ordered the harvest, but when the potatoes were harvested and stored, it was clear: the supply on the market is greater than the demand. The market price had fallen, the offer too big. What is no longer profitable for trade becomes a burden for the producer. Financially, everything was settled, but the potatoes remained.
Shortly before Christmas, I received an email from Ecosia, a search engine we had just reported on. Ecosia is the Berlin company that plants trees with its advertising revenue – over 200 million worldwide. Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Oels wrote that there is contact with a farm south of Leipzig that has to destroy 4000 tons of potatoes. “Do we, as Berliner Morgenpost and Ecosia, want to make this a joint action?”
We can. We want. And we need your help.
The largest potato rescue in the city
The plan is simple: Ecosia finances the transport from Saxony to Berlin. The Berliner Morgenpost helps to organize the free distribution.
We are looking for distribution points throughout the city: parishes, schools, sports clubs, neighborhood initiatives, social institutions or private individuals. Each collection point receives one ton of potatoes, free of charge, to distribute to all who can use them (Agria variety, firm cooking!). They can help distribute - and show together with us what is possible if we treat food for what they are: valuable.


It’s so funny to see capitalism trying to cover it’s ass. Since when does having a great harvest translate to free food for everyone? Gimme a break. The reason those 4 million kilos of potatoes are being given away is that the capitalist who was holding the futures contract for these potatoes decided to take a loss instead of have the potatoes delivered to market, since the price of potatoes would not have yielded him a profit. The point of capitalism is to yield a profit, even for life’s basic necessities. In this case, it wasn’t even the futures trader that arranged the giveaway- it was the people who did. The trader didn’t plant or harvest a single potato, but he was placed in charge of four million kilos of food. It really goes to show that we don’t need these people at all- we can manage much better without them.
Auto-translation of linked article:
Try to imagine a quantity of four million kilograms of potatoes. Four million kilograms - that’s 4000 tons, the weight of 800 adult elephants, stacked as high as the Berlin TV Tower. It’s a lot that could fill hundreds of thousands of people.
These potatoes are stored in the halls of a farm south of Leipzig, neatly sorted, cool and dry, best food quality. And they have a problem: no one wants them.
The story of these potatoes is a story about the absurdities of our food system. A trader had ordered the harvest, but when the potatoes were harvested and stored, it was clear: the supply on the market is greater than the demand. The market price had fallen, the offer too big. What is no longer profitable for trade becomes a burden for the producer. Financially, everything was settled, but the potatoes remained.
Shortly before Christmas, I received an email from Ecosia, a search engine we had just reported on. Ecosia is the Berlin company that plants trees with its advertising revenue – over 200 million worldwide. Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Oels wrote that there is contact with a farm south of Leipzig that has to destroy 4000 tons of potatoes. “Do we, as Berliner Morgenpost and Ecosia, want to make this a joint action?”
We can. We want. And we need your help.
The largest potato rescue in the city
The plan is simple: Ecosia finances the transport from Saxony to Berlin. The Berliner Morgenpost helps to organize the free distribution.
We are looking for distribution points throughout the city: parishes, schools, sports clubs, neighborhood initiatives, social institutions or private individuals. Each collection point receives one ton of potatoes, free of charge, to distribute to all who can use them (Agria variety, firm cooking!). They can help distribute - and show together with us what is possible if we treat food for what they are: valuable.


An Australian app, so you can say “Epstein” on this one but still not “stop the genocide and colonisation of Palestine”.


The deal was “sign this free trade agreement that includes our intellectual property laws and we will give you free access to the US market” but now the US has imposed tariffs on EU goods so there’s really no reason to continue honoring US IP laws.



One way of looking at it is that we literally cannot afford war. I mean moneywise. Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in order to finance the Vietnam war, which the US lost in the military sense but won in the sense of the military industry making a whole lot of money. Literally more money than was even possible.


Israel can probably make you one of those.


Good idea, but might have to come in like France did in 1971 (they rolled up to NY harbor in a destroyer). For some reason I don’t think it’ll work like it worked for de Gaulle.


I really hope the US holds a referendum. Greenlanders tell it like it is.


Hey I’ve seen this one before!



USreal couldn’t destroy Iran through a coup so now they’re bringing in artillery.


Fair enough. Most people with that opinion don’t know about them, or about Ukraine in general or their civil war at all. Just going back to 2013 borders wouldn’t solve anything, especially considering the number of Ukrainians that defected to the Russian side. It would just be an even more divided country.


What about Israel? Should it be “destroyed” as well?


That would be nice, but what about the Minsk agreements? Just ignore them? Could they even be implemented at this stage?


This topic has come up a lot (not least from Cory Doctorow). The fact that the rich are both so fragile and so un-creative is why they love AI, especially the sycophantic variants. They can’t handle someone saying no to them or, apparently, an accurate description of the past that isn’t completely flattering to them. Let them work in food services, lol.


What does a win for Ukraine look like to you? Just wondering.
And btw, from an outsider perspective it’s funny and cringe to see the attacks on your comment. I’m afraid those commenters don’t have wherewithal to be as embarrassed as they should be, but it’s a good point, that Ukraine has gotten a lot more outside funding (about $380 bn) than the USSR did to defeat Germany in WWII (about $250 bn in today’s $). I hadn’t noticed that.
Nope, try again.
Ding ding ding! That’s right, OpenAI, the company where being profitable is a physical and mathematical impossibility!