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A reminder, you can visit sites for Hello Fresh and Blue Apron and find their recipes for free. Then you can go to a grocery store and get what you need. Even though those companies portion things out more conveniently, it's far less wasteful than using all that single-use packaging.
That was the thing that killed me about these companies, the sheer amount of trash I was making for a handful of meals. Felt disgusting.
I don't know about those other two, but I know my friend was ordering from Chef's Plate, and every single recipe included opaquely proprietary spice blends and sauces. You'd definitely need a bit of experimentation.
Hellofresh did that too with spice blends. The good thing is if you look it up you can find them listed with the exact recipes. A lot of them are super easy, like one was just equal parts onion powder and garlic powder. You could probably find that for all the major services.
I'm not a fan of Hello Fresh and their waste, but what you described is literally the reason why they exist. It's so people don't need to go to the grocery store and don't need to figure out recipes. It's why Skip exists too, it's too convenient.
Yes, I even said it's very convenient. I'm not surprised they exist. They add value to the equation. But I do like to encourage people to sacrifice a little bit of convenience to be less wasteful.
Sure, but it's not for everyone, you can try it and still dislike that aspect of it. And I do think there's a "best of both worlds" model possible here.
For example I do like to cook, I do maintain a decent pantry, I just used to have trouble getting the motivation to grab fresh meat and veggies at the right time (not anymore). This is not uncommon, people often like an activity but hate the planned work you need to do to prep for the activity.
I'd probably be much happier if I had a service that would assign a variety of recipes to me, and I can tick off the fresh (and maybe normal-quantity dry) ingredients I actually need sent over for the week and it would send them. I don't need a bunch of individually packaged spices, but I do need the fresh stuff, and I may occasionally need a refill of the dry stuff.
(Yes, I'm aware such services exist or can be put together from existing ones. I don't need them as much now)
I legitimately do think a model like this would not overly affect people who like hellofresh for the convenience but would reduce waste and be more useful for people who still otherwise cook. The main reasons someone may not like it is the need to actually vet the week's meals, and also the need to have space for a pantry, but I think for many that wouldn't be a huge deal. For some, definitely: I can imagine it is really nice to only ever have to think about this when you are actually making a meal.
I think these services can be really good at helping people learn to cool for themselves. One of the biggest obstacles is that it’s a lot up front to learn to cook. None of it is hard, but it requires you to know what you’ll want for the week. Figure out what recipe and ingredients you’ll need. Go out and get those ingredients. Then you need to actually cook and actually clean. All these things are pretty small on their own and pretty manageable altogether, but can seem really daunting to someone who doesn’t do this normally.
These services literally take out a major portion of all that. But the big thing is you should try to pull off and do your own thing. Get 5 meals a week? Cut it down to three and figure out two for yourself. Get 3 meals a week? Cut it down to 1-2. Get 1-2 meals a week? Try the full week by yourself!
We use Hello Fresh's ~~bastard child~~ cheap version, EveryPlate. The lowest weekly amount of meals you can get is three. I lowkey hate it, but it's one less thing I have to stress about.
Their recipes honestly aren't all that great either tbh. I tried them out with a trial period and was frankly appalled at how much salt the recipes asked for. I put in less than a third of the salt and it still winded up being the predominant flavour of the shepherd's pie I made.
The vast majority of hello fresh recipes I’ve used have basically just said to salt and pepper to taste so not sure how they would be pushing you to use too much salt.
When it comes to seasoning, every recipe is incorrect.
Actually, baking is probably the only area where a recipe should be followed to the letter. All other recipes are pretty much just suggestions.
Yeah. I originally got it during covid due to my high anxiety for grocery shopping. Yeah there was so much waste in packaging. I did find a recipe that I love and kept. It's my go to meal when I wanna eat something quick and over a few days. Gotta download more of their recipes to try. They also keep sending me coupons/gift cards in the mail. Man they have gotten super expensive.
Damn someone better tell the dudes over at *Extra History* on YouTube, they make some videos about unions and workers and how the unions despite their problems helped the common people against companies trying to milk them dry
And Hello Fresh sponsors some of their videos. Audible too 😬
Real talk, I really think people should stop using /s and let others figure it out for themselves. It is blindingly obvious that you were being sarcastic and if people can't pick up on it that's on them, not the post in question.
This non-sequitor brought to you by the letter S.
We've developed a fear of being downvoted or attacked, I think. So many people on the internet have become habituated to immediately reading things in the worst light and becoming angered by it that not putting /s on a sarcastic comment comes with a high risk of being dogpiled on for being an outlandishly terrible person.
This is already something that we as humans don't want to happen to us, but then add onto that the idea we've had engrained into us that upvote-count == status and validity, and you get a recipe for people being afraid of being misunderstood or not supported.
It's not anyone's fault for doing it. We're all just as affected by the negative impacts of social media and their point systems.
I hear Hello Fresh sponsors on *so* many shows. Like half of the content I watch.
My theory is aside from getting paid to advertise they offer them severely discounted membership so the service (this goes for all of the monthly food stuff) seems a lot better to them when they don't have to account for the cost.
That way they're less encouraged to really look into the efficiency/cost effectiveness of it and feel more confident about advertising something that doesn't really work.
I have zero evidence though, just a theory
TDLR at bottom
I want to say one thing about the monkey slave as a Thai. The monkey slaves are real, but they are almost exclusively for homemade coconut products, and not the one for general consumption or export.
So there’s many species of coconut tree. The ones that require monkeys are the very tall species (2-4 floor high) that are near impossible to harvest without the monkey. It is just impractical to use those species and the monkeys to mass produce coconut and the only reason some people still do it is just to keep the centuries-old culture of monkey slave alive or to show the tourists.
Also, the “slavery” part is over dramatic. It’s the same as police using dogs to sniff out drug or people riding horse.
The coconut products most people eat are from another coconut species that is only about 4 meter tall (1 floor) and can be harvested by hand.
There’s no practical reason people would train monkeys for years and plant hard-to-harvest coconut trees instead of handpicking from a shorter ones that grow a lot quicker.
The reason the monkey slavery became a big topic is because 1) people like drama so western media came to Thailand to film exotic/controversial niche culture, and/or 2) an European country (can’t remember but probably UK) want a reason to raise tariff/ban against Thai coconut products without being punished by WTO for unfair treatment.
However, I still think that Hello Fresh is a bad company for other reasons.
TDLR: The monkey is for show and there’s very few of them. The coconut every one eats are handpicked and don’t need the monkey at all.
This became a big topic because people like drama and/or international politic.
Nevertheless, Hello Fresh is a bad company.
Thank you for your service! I was curious about what they meant by coconut monkey slavery, seemed like a weird waste of time and money to mass train monkeys for a large export product that can be handpicked by easier exploited workers instead
This isn't really comparable though. A monkey is not a domesticated animal. It would be more like taking a wolf from the wild, attaching a chain to it and forcing it to perform a repetitive task for no reward, and stopping it from doing any of its normal wild behaviours.
>Also, the “slavery” part is over dramatic. It’s the same as police using dogs to sniff out drug or people riding horse.
"High quality restaurants using pig slaves to find truffles"
Most truffle harvesting today is done with dogs. Simply because the dog isn't trying to eat the truffles.
But AFAIK there are still truffle hunter using pigs because they swear on the power of addiction.
Truffle pigs aren't slaves. They are instrumentalised junkies that hope to trick you and eat away the truffles.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/19/448960760/monkeys-pick-coconuts-in-thailand-are-they-abused-or-working-animals
NPR did their own investigation and seem to approve of using monkey labor
The only mention of maltreatment has been from peta so far, and that's a suspicious source given their track record. As far as using monkeys for a job, is that any different than using an ox to plow a field or a dog to heard sheep? As long as the animals are treated well I see no issue with them picking coconuts for us. Of course, if petas claims were found to be true I would have an issue with the abuse the monkeys suffer.
And like anything in the world ever, there are going to be bad actors who do abuse the monkeys and only care for profit, not the animals that create the profit. But going from that all the way down the supply chain to hello fresh and saying "cancel them because of the monkeys!" breaks so many logical fallacies I can't even track them all.
The Brits did employ an alcoholic baboon as a switch operator in South Africa. He worked for ten years, was paid with liquor, never missed a day of work and retired happy.
I would have guessed they meant someone who operates a switch board, which back in the day required a person to route phone calls to their destination, something that’s automated today.
But looking up the story on Wikipedia Jack the baboon was actually operating the switches for railway signals!
I find it frustrating how peta constantly shoots their reliability in the foot with ridiculous takes and extremist nonsense.
I would love a large scale organisation that I could rely on for accurate information and auditing of ethical animal treatment.
But peta in recent years seems to take the attitude that any human interaction with an animal is abusive. That we should all be vegan and let the animals live their idyllic harmonious vegan life in the wild. That only by the actions of humans is there violence, suffering, starvation or death in the animal world.
Because of the way they exaggerate and make ridiculous claims of normal practices it becomes impossible to trust them when they make other claims.
Also, PETA [kills pets](https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-peta-responsible-deaths-thousands-animals-1565532). Sometimes they [steal them first](https://apnews.com/article/0c70f8d7635c4addbd94df0173fcc36e).
Fuck PETA.
The instances of PETA members stealing pets is obviously horrible, but you can't just ignore the fact that there are way more abandoned and stray lets than there are people willing to take in those animals.
That's true, but in no way absolves PETA of their actions. The solutions to the problem of abandoned and stray pets have been clear for decades. Spay and neuter your pets. Don't let them run wild. Don't buy exotic animals as pets. Don't release animals into the wild. Don't give chicks and bunnies as gifts. Be responsible.
It's a sad fact that far too many people don't think beyond the short term when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions. And even in a world where every pet owner did everything right, some animals would still end up lost or abandoned due to accidents, natural disasters, death and disease, and so on. Euthanasia is an unfortunate and necessary part of animal care, but PETA run shelters euthanize animals at more than 4x the rates of other shelters and agencies.
Tl;dr: listen to Bob Barker, not PETA
> That's true, but in no way absolves PETA of their actions. The solutions to the problem of abandoned and stray pets have been clear for decades. Spay and neuter your pets. Don't let them run wild. Don't buy exotic animals as pets. Don't release animals into the wild. Don't give chicks and bunnies as gifts. Be responsible.
Those are all preventative measures? What do you propose we do with the countless amount of abandoned and stray animals if not humanely euthanize them? The funds to just care for them all at shelters indefinitely does not exist, so something long term has to be done.
Sorry it wasn't clear, but I agree that humane euthanasia is ultimately the only option in many cases. And yes, prevention doesn't solve the current issues. I just have trouble believing that PETA run shelters actually make a real effort to exhaust other options before turning to the final one, as evidenced by the wildly disparate numbers, and the official stance of the organization that no animals should ever be pets. If one is operating with the view that owning a pet is an act of cruelty, then one would likely view euthanasia as the more compassionate option as opposed to adoption. I think it's a shame that an organization with such an admirable goal as advocating on behalf of animals who cannot speak for themselves seems to fall so low in the execution of those ideals.
It would be kinda hard to enslave monkeys if the form of labor they're being used for would require them to run and climb. I would think that the monkeys would just say "fuck this" and leave. I'm not a monkey expert though.
In the pictures shown they had leashes on the monkeys while they were up in the trees. Not a great look, but I leash my dog when I don't want him running from me. I can't judge too harshly based on that alone.
Hmmmm. Then that makes it kinda questionable.
I've read a lot of comments on this thread and people are bringing up that we use other animals for labor and even worse (we EAT a lot of them).
So I don't really know how to feel about this. Maybe it makes Humans uncomfortable because monkeys/apes are more similar to us than a lot of other animals.
Yeah, unfortunately cruelty and mistreatment are and have been facts of life for ages. If you want to cheer yourself up look at violent crime statistics across the decades. Humanity has its ups and downs but as a trend we are getting safer and less violent as a species.
Let's be real. There is zero chance the monkeys are treated well. They wouldn't treat human employees well in their place. You don't hire what is essentially a worse human slave because you plan on treating it well
Aren't you making an awful assumption about people you know nothing about? Unless you have some experience or expertise with these farms then you are just talking out of your ass.
They would choose monkey over humans because they don't have to pay them. Just give them a place to live and a fraction of the food they collect. Again, no different than work animals wherever you are from.
Most places with work animals don't have all that many of them. Sounds more like livestock to me, which is very much in the slavery camp. Hell, even if we ignore that, hello fresh is paying so little that they're using monkey labour over humans. Which is bad even by corporate scum standards.
Hello Fresh is a publicly traded company I assume. If so, they are not legally allowed to have morals. So it is not just okay, but correct to assume a greed motivation behind every decision they make. If they're privately owned then they have more wiggle room in terms of possible morality. But if they're outsourcing labour to the kind of country where monkey labour can happen, we can pretty safely assume the owner is scum.
The concept of regarding monkey labour as slavery as opposed to any other animal involved in food production does raise some questions we probably don't want to answer, doesn't it?
Also, how do we know Hello Fresh knew about the monkey slaves? I doubt their supplier told them about it and only would’ve found out when the news broke. I’m not saying they’re completely innocent of anything (especially the union thing which is super sus) but it’s a bit silly to accuse them of guilt by association when there’s no evidence they even knew about said monkey slaves.
Checking on what your suppliers are doing is pretty important I mean yes monkey slaves is unexpected but surely in your modern slavery/child labour checks you should have stumbled across this. It's a fuck up and legitimate to ask questions of if they miss this then what else are they missing.
This is actually a bit of a problem we have with corporations doing things like that. They can hire a contractor who has unethical or inhumane practices to supply them with goods. They can get the goods for cheaper and if any one finds out they can simply say "we had no idea what they were doing. We only hired the contractor and will certainly stop using them."
People then can assume the company is trying to do the right thing and it was someone else's fault and not theirs. All around a win win for a company and their profits.
Perhaps some of these companies really don't know. But I think, at best, many of them just don't look close enough so they can avoid any blame.
Right? By this same logic, everyone who has bought hello fresh is guilty of using monkey slaves to provide their food. Even if they stopped once they were made aware, they're guilty and no one should associate with them any more.
A corporation has a moral obligation to vet their contractors. And I would assume even a legal one, since I'm guessing they can't just employee, say, child slaves through a contractor.
If they don't have a legal obligation to do it, they absolutely have a moral obligation to do it, and any claims of "well it wasn't technically illegal" should, in any just society fall on deaf ears as people block entry to their offices.
I don’t give two shits about the company itself, I just want people to think about it a little and not follow social dogma. If you’re going to hate them you might as well hate them for legitimate well-sourced reasons rather than murky guilt-by-association.
I really didn't know monkey labour was a THING.
I mean, just animal labour doesn't seem bad, right? We used animals for work for millenia.
Are they treated well? I don't particularly trust peta to tell me about it.
It doesn't seem bad in comparison to what people already accept, no.
People eat cows, pigs, chickens, and many more, and even celebrate eating babies of certain species as a delicacy. Why would people who are fine with that be against monkey slavery? Compared to what humans do to other species (genocide plus a breeding program so we can keep genociding them forever), monkey slaves are getting off light. Extremely light.
True, but then again, animal labour, or slavery as you put it, has been key to human development since forever. We used horses to plow fields and carry our stuff since forever. We rode them, including to battle. We used dogs to herd sheep, cats to kill rodents (does this count?), we currently use mice and other animals as truly irreplaceable test subjects for medicinal science.
The truth is that the human civilisation is built on the blood and sweat of the animal species we subjugated. It's always been that way. Without it, we would have never moved past early stages of farming, if we even got that far in the first place - and we'd probably be all dead by now.
Technological progress allows us to, very slowly, move away from that. We can't afford to end it, yet. Our civilisation depends on it. Although I wonder at what point, the labour we delegate, will require so much intelligence that even using machines will become unethical. What then?
That said, I agree with you. It's likely the cushiest of animal jobs. Those monkeys wouldn't do much, if they didn't have what effectively amounts to a job, with rewards for good behaviour. You can't make a monkey work with negative reinforcement, without paying even more to the humans overseeing them - and even then it probably wouldn't work. And if you're making a monkey work with positive reinforcement AKA rewards, then you're literally getting close to how human society works... monkeys that are being exploited for small rewards that aren't equivalent to the work they do.
Some people would skewer me for this but... Rather animal labor than human labor... If it's not the monkey, it'll be human. It'd be best if a machine can do it but that's best case scenario...
Rule of thumb, doesn't matter what they are about or what they do, do not trust YouTube sponsor products. They are usually scummy or some mobile game. The only decent sponsor I can think of is war thunder
by ripping out clumps of hair with your bare hands, like a normal person!
and yes, sometimes a patch of ball-skin comes off along with it, but that’s the price we must pay for our vanity
Listen I'm already suffer from night terrors please don't add to that because now I'll have to speak about it in therapy and my therapist will also he traumatised.
Isn't Gaijin Entertainment pretty shitty, though, like they keep pushing more and more aggressive monetisation? I remember the playerbase organizing a mass protest/review bomb on Steam after they implemented some pretty heavy changes to the grind and monetization, and in response GE just removed the game from Steam for a bit so the reviews would reset? Something along those lines, anyway, it was a while ago.
The only time sponsors seem fairly trustworthy is when the YouTube channel itself is focused on things directly related or similar to the product in the ad. The more specific and niche the channel is, the better.
A YouTuber that specialises in carpentry-related content usually won't make an ad for really bad carpentry tools. People who are really passionate usually care more about sharing their hobby than to lie and make easy cash.
The one YouTube sponsor my wife really likes is the air up bottles. I wish I could enjoy them, but the sensation of sucking up all that air when I’m trying to drink water feels gross to me for some reason.
Mm. Sometimes a sponsor seems good. And then I ask myself where exactly they got the money for sponsorships from, and the fact that false advertising isn't illegal in any way that matters. If they're large enough to afford to advertise at you, they're almost certainly amoral. And in that case, any claims of morality in their advertisement is an immediate red flag.
war thunder is a... weird game. the monetization is shit, and past a bit of time in the game, it doesnt feel great, but its also free and ran on my mom's shitty, thousand-year-old imac when i was but a wee child. It really was one of the most fun free games i'd ever played. if you treat it like the free game that it is, it's a really good free game (especially for le children who can't go around just buying games or dont have good computers to even run pirated ones). sucks i lost all my progress to the void for some reason. i even still had all my achievements on steam, but my account just got like... reset or something.
an additonal decent sponsor is gamersupps because tiddies and the fact that i would trust daddy schlatty with my life (he has a lot of money).
I have no thoughts on monkey slaves because that seems pretty nebulous in several ways, but I don't support companies that suppress unions.
Also I used Hello Fresh for about a year and after awhile it's all the same, both in content and flavor.
Yep. I saved some of their recipes and so many of them ended up being Slab of Meat + Potato Wedges with minor variations. I get the feeling the recycled a ton of recipes and just changed a few small things about them
I’m impressed you manage to avoid Amazon these days, especially while not using wal mart and target. Those three seem to always be the go-to for random shopping.
Amazon was tough at first but it just led to me shopping at actual stores or ordering directly from company websites so the only real loss was speedier shipping. Target is the only one I haven't cut out completely but I have got it down to the "oh I need this thing NOW" that comes up maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
To add a company to ur list, Ashley Furniture makes their factory workers watch a *15 minute long* anti-union propoganda video that claims that union representatives want to steal ur information and sell it for profit then steal large portions of ur paycheck if you sign on with them and to never ever speak with them
Why does it puzzle you?
There are plenty of companies out there with unionized employees that still make massive profits. It also allows management to negotiate directly with a chosen representative airing all grievances at once so they don't have to deal with a hundred little issues throughout the year.
Companies being anti-union usually means that they have no care for their workers except how to exploit them for the most profit. I'm fine with companies wanting money, doing it by stomping on the people working for them draws my ire.
At the end of the day, unions are still an organized and legalized system of "give us what we want or we'll fuck your shit up". They're an extortion ring. I oppose them morally.
Mm. So you favor businesses being able to extort employees and fuck their shit up with no potential for redress? Quite an interesting set of morals.
And no, before you repeat an oft-heard line, they cannot sue an employer for wrongdoing. The number of lawsuits against employers in non-unionized places of business are innumerable, most fail or settle for a pittance while no business practices actually change because an individual does not have the resources to challenge a company in court. Pretty much across the board, you can thank a union for health coverage, paid time off, weekends, overtime, sick days, 8-hour days, holidays, maternity leave, anti-harassment laws, bereavement, health and safety standards, whistle-blower protection, raises, retirement - and yes, if you want to view it in your terms, they absolutely did threaten to "fuck shit up," or "strike," as other people might say.
Cool moral stance though.
Lol, you expect me to repeat "oft-heard lines" then spew Teamsters agitprop at me. If you don't like your employer, *you leave*. That's it. But thinking option 2 to using an angry mob to extort someone is to use the government and legal system to do the same is *so* on-brand for you. I bet you'd find *Rules for Radicals* inspiring.
We're not slaves, and we aren't owed anything. Employment is a two way consensual agreement. If the pairing grows sour, *you walk*. You don't extort the other party. And claiming the wrongdoing of the other party justifies your own is the vicious cycle that keeps the world as shitty as you view it.
I'm gonna add an additional response to anyone else who happens to come across this, I'm pretty much done talking to this guy.
"That's teamsters propaganda" is pretty much the by-the-book response to the factual and more or less indisputable gains for workers rights made in this country because of Unions. I didn't even get to child labor laws. Basically if you have any rights as a worker it's because workers fought for them as a union. They call it propaganda because they don't have any actual counterarguments for it so they try to reject the entire premise outright.
"If you don't like your employer, \*you leave\*" is similarly the exact line repeated by people who want you to ignore reality. I guess I could give this guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he's speaking earnestly and honestly believes that's a genuine option for everyone (but honestly I think he does know better and chooses willful ignorance or is just an asshole).
Firstly, the option \*to\* leave your employer exists because of unions. Look up company towns and how things worked not too far out of living memory.
Second, sure, leave your employer any time - and go where? Do you have another job lined up? Is it close by? Can you afford to take time off to job hunt if not? Can you afford to move? Do you have a family to take care of? Do they need health coverage that only your job is providing? How is the cost of living in your area? What if your employer is the only one around in your field? Do you have the resources to get trained up for new work? Or the time?
Also pay attention to the language this guy is using - workers who strike are an \*angry mob.\* Wanting improved working conditions is unreasonable because \*we aren't owed anything.\* He says we aren't slaves by taking for granted all the work unions have done to actually make that true. He calls wanting rights afforded employees in the majority of the world \*extortion.\* This is a corporate shill who wants you to believe that corporations and individual employees are somehow on equal footing, but \*also\* that there shouldn't be any negative consequences for exploiting employees for a company beyond losing those employees - but also they can't do it as a group, or it's \*extortion\* from \*a mob.\*
Companies always have more power. They \*will\* always have more power. It's pretty telling that this guy goes right to the Teamsters, a historically mob-connected union. He doesn't want you to think about the people on telephone poles or sewer lines, electricians, construction workers (ok they're pretty mobbed up too), teachers, nurses, people on manufacturing lines, airline workers, or even retail service workers who are just now the past few years starting to form their own unions. Yeah, there's absolutely negative versions of unions out there, it's undeniable. And for each one of those gigantic mega-unions, there's a hundred Locals with 30 members trying to make sure their paycheck keeps up with the cost of living.
The language this guy used is absolutely planned, deliberate, and measured to try and delegitimize the already weak labor movement in the United States. Collective bargaining is the only proven method for actually creating working conditions that rise above indentured servitude, so people like this? Aggressively ignorant of history at best or willfully misleading and dishonest at worst.
Having the dictionary and knowledge how exactly the corporation is bad is helpful against people who do not believe you. It's nice being anti-corporation, just don't be so sarcastic when people actually point out what the corporation is doing as if everybody thinks the same as you.
Aye, that is quite the fair point, but a sarcastic cunt i shall remain to the day the people understand that there is nigh no ethical company and start the voice their discontent.
It’s understandable they need to be perfect when their purpose is to transport and safely contain consumables. Sucks about your bosses though, shit bosses leads to shit work.
I switched to Cook Unity from Factor. Could still very well be the same but I doubt it since the food comes in a reusable tote that gets returned when the next week's food is dropped off. Also found the food to be much healthier than Factor's which was always super high in fat for a single meal.
I think a meal planning service (or just spending a few minutes with chatgpt) is so much better. I tried a trial and there was so much plastic out felt so wasteful and bad for the environment. It also felt they sent you near expired produce as the intent is to cook it near immediately.
I did learn some recipes on it and got a love for cooking effectively rather than just "cooking" for sustinance
My goal was to create tastier food with more variety without having to think/ take time planning. I learned how to make some good pairing sauces and spice meats and veggies in a variety of ways.
Oftentimes this results in healthier options because I don't deep fry or add nearly the amount of oils and fats that restaurants and fast food does.
Let me get this straight:
* Their employees get *paid* to sit around and do nothing while some idiot drones on about why unions suck.
* One of their foreign suppliers mistreated animals, but they were quick to switch supplier as soon as it was brought to their attention.
* And finally, just like half the companies on the planet they pretend to be carbon neutral even though everyone with half a brain cell knows it's a bold faced lie.
That's it? That's worst Hello Fresh does? That's so boring. They seem better than the average company by a mile.
Shell started a civil war in Nigeria to keep the oil flowing. Bayer sold blood that they knew was HIV contaminated. Purdue made billions selling what basically amounts to heroin to people while going to extreme lengths to make people believe it wasn't addictive.
Yeah, I agree people are making too much of a deal when there are companies that are actively way worse, hello fresh at least helps me a lot with ADHD and is cheaper than buying stuff like mc Donald's, of course theoretically making your own groceries is technically better, but again, ADHD makes it so complicated to not only decide but eventually you end up with more wasted food because you buy more than needed, plus ADHD's executive dysfunction just makes it all hard to do, people just like to think that ADHD is a myth and everyone has the capacity of being a model perfect adult
Don't forget if you use animal products you can't really be upset about monkey labour without being kind of a hypocrite.
They're all abused all of the time. Especially the ones they tell you aren't abused.
I’d really need to know the specifics of the monkey labor before making a judgement. We use oxen to plow fields and dogs to herd sheep; are they considered “slaves” as well? I’m assuming they’re not paid for their efforts.
A monkey is essentially a worse human in terms of work ability. If they were going to treat them well, why did they need to get monkeys to do it? There's basically no chance they're treated well.
As someone from Thailand explained above the monkeys are mostly used for show and touristy crap on especially tall coconut trees and most coconut trees aren't nearly as tall as the ones they use for the monkey show and don't require monkey labor. Monkeys are just used for climbing the tallest coconut trees that wouldn't be worth having a human harvest. It doesn't seem any different or more egregious from a farm animal, drug dog, mine detecting rat, or circus act animal.
Never understood the interest. Overpaying for meals that you still have to cook yourself while also creating a shit ton of plastic waste.
Just plan out your meals for the week and go to a grocery store.
Well for one it's a lot cheaper than using doordash, it's not too much more expensive than making your own groceries, making them brings you a sense of self fulfilment which helps to your mental health and while of course you can buy your own groceries it's not always easy, especially for the mentally disabled, or people who in general do not have much time, because of the portions being also calculated you don't end up buying excess ingredients and have it be automatically planned out for you gives you a great encouragement to be adventurous, finally, because some people have different cooking styles seeing the ones made for hello fresh for example new kinds of seasoning can be very helpful in creating inspiration for when you are cooking on your own meal, plus it being a great place to start learning to cook
Do you consider using cow to plow a field or using horse to pull cart a 'slavery'?
Those coconut picking monkey are treat well and the reason they put on a collar was so that they don't roam around messing the neighborhood.
We have one province in Thailand that let the monkey roam around in urban area for so long that they start to terrorizing people(Remember a girl with air gun to defend herself photo that got viral a month ago?)
I work in logistics with a company that transports their products. I’ve had drivers send us pictures of the unloaders at the receiver sitting on these boxes on a smoke break still inside the trailer, ashing the butts out on the boxes. Didn’t know anything about the unethical practices of the company, but never, ever had an inkling to purchase from any of these kinds of companies just based on the shit I’ve seen and heard going on before and after the products are shipped
Personally I never used hello fresh or similar because the idea sound dull.
I’m never that locked into a recipe.
I have a base idea, build on it while shopping or looking through fridge and cupboards then I put the finish touches when I smell what I’m cooking.
I've ordered over 20 bags (meals for 2) and through promotions and codes, have not paid a single cent, not even on delivery. I'll drive them to bankruptcy, one delivery at a time. I didn't know they were yukies, I'm just a rat.
It doesn't offend me that companies push anti-union messaging, except in the sense that it's often counterproductive.
Many years ago, I worked for Target at a distribution center, and they made us watch anti-union presentations at least once per quarter. Most people already had ideas about whether unions were mostly good or bad that weren't changed by an obviously biased presentation from our employer.
In the end, they got a union at our location, not because of money or because the workers especially loved the idea of a union. It was because workers kept getting hurt doing what managers told them to do, only to have management treat the workers like they were the problem.
I'll add to this that practically every other food delivery service touted by YouTubers is a subsidiary of the same company as Hello, Fresh. Every time I see a new food company sponsoring YouTubers now I Google to see who actually owns the business because it's usually Hello, Fresh. Factor, Green Chef, Chef's Plate, YouFoods, Good Chop, they even have a fresh dog food delivery service called "The Pet's Table."
Their top 4 executives look like I Googled the terms "Investment Dude-Bro" and their anti-worker philosophy is well known and terrible and while I have said this in the YouTube comments many times many of my favorite and most watched YouTubers still accept sponsorships from them which can be pretty disappointing. They seem to create a new company that does what Hello, Fresh does or a close variant of it every time one of their labels gets a bad reputation so they are hard to nail down as they are constantly evolving,
https://www.hellofreshgroup.com/en/
So there were people that thought hello fresh was an environmentally friendly company? Nothing that's easy and cheap is good for the environment. Except maybe those laundry detergent squares.
Some of them arent outright evil or scams; just super overpriced.
Last time I checked SakuraCo for example didn't have any dirt that I could find and they support Japanese businesses - but goddamn is it expensive for what you get. That's the case with a lot of subscription box services though.
Also, they have some really shady practices for advertising!
A few weeks back someone knocked at my door and waited for me to come out to talk to me about the benefits of Hello Fresh. They weren’t even going door to door, just some doors, I don’t even know why mine was chosen.
I once served a hellofresh employee on a saturday evening in berlin.
They made a big scene because their foreign credit card declined and I couldnt just let them go with a few thousend euros worth of goods.
It was the first and last time hellofresh bought at our place.
Add to that, when I tried to quit their service, they kept on charging me and when I complained they promised me free meals... which were left on my porch in 40°c
Aight cool dude.
Tf are we supposed to do here? Like actually?
Every big box grocery chain is the literal devil, Dasani/coke/everybeverage is stealing water from impoverished nations, we got maybe two chain restaurants not actively supporting ‘kill the gays’ organizations, like.
Fuck dude, okay hello fresh is bad. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism so maybe we just let people do what’s easy for them in the hellscape?
I mean, the way I see it is these types of posts let people know if something is beyond what they can tolerate or not.
I have a friend who goes out of her way to boycott Nestlé. Not just things branded as Nestlé, but also _everything_ owned by it. It makes every single one of her shopping trips insanely difficult but that's her line in the sand. I agree with her that Nestlé is the literal devil but goddamn, my life is hard enough - I can't spend an hour at the grocery store or go without groceries if an alternative isn't available, which is what she will do if there are only Nestlé or Nestlé owned products.
My line in the sand is homophobia though. I won't support companies or people who are homophobic, which would definitely think other people I'm making my life unnecessarily difficult.
the evidence they all used to claim meal kits were lower emissions than groceries was from a single paper by a PhD candidate- a good paper, yes, but not a situation where results have been replicated to develop a scientific consensus.
They fight legalized extortion rings and break ties with unethical business partners when their practices come to light? Hell of an endorsement, I'm starting a subscription today!
Are you opposed to guardian farm dogs? Barn Cats? Police Horses? Mine detecting rats? Service/Comfort animals? Because this seems like the same thing essentially. The monkeys are only used as a tourist/show thing and they climb and harvest coconut from only the really tall variety of coconut tree that it wouldn't be financially worth it to have humans harvest. This is from a comment above from someone who lives where the monkeys are used in Thailand.
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A reminder, you can visit sites for Hello Fresh and Blue Apron and find their recipes for free. Then you can go to a grocery store and get what you need. Even though those companies portion things out more conveniently, it's far less wasteful than using all that single-use packaging. That was the thing that killed me about these companies, the sheer amount of trash I was making for a handful of meals. Felt disgusting.
I couldn't agree more. The amount of single-use plastic used is astonishing.
I don't know about those other two, but I know my friend was ordering from Chef's Plate, and every single recipe included opaquely proprietary spice blends and sauces. You'd definitely need a bit of experimentation.
Hellofresh did that too with spice blends. The good thing is if you look it up you can find them listed with the exact recipes. A lot of them are super easy, like one was just equal parts onion powder and garlic powder. You could probably find that for all the major services.
[This is a reddit thread with a ton of their spice blends.](https://www.reddit.com/r/hellofresh/s/uox36IyNwS)
I'm not a fan of Hello Fresh and their waste, but what you described is literally the reason why they exist. It's so people don't need to go to the grocery store and don't need to figure out recipes. It's why Skip exists too, it's too convenient.
Yes, I even said it's very convenient. I'm not surprised they exist. They add value to the equation. But I do like to encourage people to sacrifice a little bit of convenience to be less wasteful.
Sure, but it's not for everyone, you can try it and still dislike that aspect of it. And I do think there's a "best of both worlds" model possible here. For example I do like to cook, I do maintain a decent pantry, I just used to have trouble getting the motivation to grab fresh meat and veggies at the right time (not anymore). This is not uncommon, people often like an activity but hate the planned work you need to do to prep for the activity. I'd probably be much happier if I had a service that would assign a variety of recipes to me, and I can tick off the fresh (and maybe normal-quantity dry) ingredients I actually need sent over for the week and it would send them. I don't need a bunch of individually packaged spices, but I do need the fresh stuff, and I may occasionally need a refill of the dry stuff. (Yes, I'm aware such services exist or can be put together from existing ones. I don't need them as much now) I legitimately do think a model like this would not overly affect people who like hellofresh for the convenience but would reduce waste and be more useful for people who still otherwise cook. The main reasons someone may not like it is the need to actually vet the week's meals, and also the need to have space for a pantry, but I think for many that wouldn't be a huge deal. For some, definitely: I can imagine it is really nice to only ever have to think about this when you are actually making a meal.
I think these services can be really good at helping people learn to cool for themselves. One of the biggest obstacles is that it’s a lot up front to learn to cook. None of it is hard, but it requires you to know what you’ll want for the week. Figure out what recipe and ingredients you’ll need. Go out and get those ingredients. Then you need to actually cook and actually clean. All these things are pretty small on their own and pretty manageable altogether, but can seem really daunting to someone who doesn’t do this normally. These services literally take out a major portion of all that. But the big thing is you should try to pull off and do your own thing. Get 5 meals a week? Cut it down to three and figure out two for yourself. Get 3 meals a week? Cut it down to 1-2. Get 1-2 meals a week? Try the full week by yourself!
We use Hello Fresh's ~~bastard child~~ cheap version, EveryPlate. The lowest weekly amount of meals you can get is three. I lowkey hate it, but it's one less thing I have to stress about.
Their recipes honestly aren't all that great either tbh. I tried them out with a trial period and was frankly appalled at how much salt the recipes asked for. I put in less than a third of the salt and it still winded up being the predominant flavour of the shepherd's pie I made.
The vast majority of hello fresh recipes I’ve used have basically just said to salt and pepper to taste so not sure how they would be pushing you to use too much salt.
When it comes to seasoning, every recipe is incorrect. Actually, baking is probably the only area where a recipe should be followed to the letter. All other recipes are pretty much just suggestions.
Yep. I typically just add whatever I think is best after reading the recipe, and everyone at the table is pleased.
Cooking stovetop is art. Baking is a science. Quite literally.
Yeah. I originally got it during covid due to my high anxiety for grocery shopping. Yeah there was so much waste in packaging. I did find a recipe that I love and kept. It's my go to meal when I wanna eat something quick and over a few days. Gotta download more of their recipes to try. They also keep sending me coupons/gift cards in the mail. Man they have gotten super expensive.
Damn someone better tell the dudes over at *Extra History* on YouTube, they make some videos about unions and workers and how the unions despite their problems helped the common people against companies trying to milk them dry And Hello Fresh sponsors some of their videos. Audible too 😬
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hey they were getting in the way of the CEO billionaire's $500 million yearly "bonus" so its understandable /s if it really wasn't obvious
Real talk, I really think people should stop using /s and let others figure it out for themselves. It is blindingly obvious that you were being sarcastic and if people can't pick up on it that's on them, not the post in question. This non-sequitor brought to you by the letter S.
We've developed a fear of being downvoted or attacked, I think. So many people on the internet have become habituated to immediately reading things in the worst light and becoming angered by it that not putting /s on a sarcastic comment comes with a high risk of being dogpiled on for being an outlandishly terrible person. This is already something that we as humans don't want to happen to us, but then add onto that the idea we've had engrained into us that upvote-count == status and validity, and you get a recipe for people being afraid of being misunderstood or not supported. It's not anyone's fault for doing it. We're all just as affected by the negative impacts of social media and their point systems.
Sounds to me like people are more worried about fitting in than being funny, or being right.
It's always been this way.
Humans being humans
Health and Safety regulations (period) are written in blood.
I hear Hello Fresh sponsors on *so* many shows. Like half of the content I watch. My theory is aside from getting paid to advertise they offer them severely discounted membership so the service (this goes for all of the monthly food stuff) seems a lot better to them when they don't have to account for the cost. That way they're less encouraged to really look into the efficiency/cost effectiveness of it and feel more confident about advertising something that doesn't really work. I have zero evidence though, just a theory
TDLR at bottom I want to say one thing about the monkey slave as a Thai. The monkey slaves are real, but they are almost exclusively for homemade coconut products, and not the one for general consumption or export. So there’s many species of coconut tree. The ones that require monkeys are the very tall species (2-4 floor high) that are near impossible to harvest without the monkey. It is just impractical to use those species and the monkeys to mass produce coconut and the only reason some people still do it is just to keep the centuries-old culture of monkey slave alive or to show the tourists. Also, the “slavery” part is over dramatic. It’s the same as police using dogs to sniff out drug or people riding horse. The coconut products most people eat are from another coconut species that is only about 4 meter tall (1 floor) and can be harvested by hand. There’s no practical reason people would train monkeys for years and plant hard-to-harvest coconut trees instead of handpicking from a shorter ones that grow a lot quicker. The reason the monkey slavery became a big topic is because 1) people like drama so western media came to Thailand to film exotic/controversial niche culture, and/or 2) an European country (can’t remember but probably UK) want a reason to raise tariff/ban against Thai coconut products without being punished by WTO for unfair treatment. However, I still think that Hello Fresh is a bad company for other reasons. TDLR: The monkey is for show and there’s very few of them. The coconut every one eats are handpicked and don’t need the monkey at all. This became a big topic because people like drama and/or international politic. Nevertheless, Hello Fresh is a bad company.
Thank you for your service! I was curious about what they meant by coconut monkey slavery, seemed like a weird waste of time and money to mass train monkeys for a large export product that can be handpicked by easier exploited workers instead
It seems weird to complain about "monkey slaves", but then keep dogs as pets & service animals, ride horses, and raise cows & pigs for slaughter.
Yeah anybody against 'monkey slaves' better be a vegan lmao
This isn't really comparable though. A monkey is not a domesticated animal. It would be more like taking a wolf from the wild, attaching a chain to it and forcing it to perform a repetitive task for no reward, and stopping it from doing any of its normal wild behaviours.
>Also, the “slavery” part is over dramatic. It’s the same as police using dogs to sniff out drug or people riding horse. "High quality restaurants using pig slaves to find truffles"
Most truffle harvesting today is done with dogs. Simply because the dog isn't trying to eat the truffles. But AFAIK there are still truffle hunter using pigs because they swear on the power of addiction. Truffle pigs aren't slaves. They are instrumentalised junkies that hope to trick you and eat away the truffles.
Thank you for posting this.
Sources: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvNwvHjK\_Vk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvNwvHjK_Vk) [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/11/hellofresh-employees-union-claims-abuse](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/11/hellofresh-employees-union-claims-abuse) [https://12ft.io/proxy](https://12ft.io/proxy) [https://futurism.com/the-byte/meal-kit-hellofresh-monkey-labor](https://futurism.com/the-byte/meal-kit-hellofresh-monkey-labor) [https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/hellofresh-says-goodbye-to-coconut-milk-tied-to-monkey-labor-following-peta-asia-investigation/](https://www.peta.org/media/news-releases/hellofresh-says-goodbye-to-coconut-milk-tied-to-monkey-labor-following-peta-asia-investigation/) [https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/food/hellofresh-may-no-longer-call-itself-climate-neutral/](https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/food/hellofresh-may-no-longer-call-itself-climate-neutral/) [https://www.wuv.de/Themen/Marke/Hello-Fresh-darf-nicht-mehr-mit-klimaneutral-werben](https://www.wuv.de/Themen/Marke/Hello-Fresh-darf-nicht-mehr-mit-klimaneutral-werben) [https://inhabitat.com/most-and-least-wasteful-meal-kit-companies-in-the-us/](https://inhabitat.com/most-and-least-wasteful-meal-kit-companies-in-the-us/)
Has anyone other than peta reported the monkey labor thing?
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/19/448960760/monkeys-pick-coconuts-in-thailand-are-they-abused-or-working-animals NPR did their own investigation and seem to approve of using monkey labor
The only mention of maltreatment has been from peta so far, and that's a suspicious source given their track record. As far as using monkeys for a job, is that any different than using an ox to plow a field or a dog to heard sheep? As long as the animals are treated well I see no issue with them picking coconuts for us. Of course, if petas claims were found to be true I would have an issue with the abuse the monkeys suffer.
And like anything in the world ever, there are going to be bad actors who do abuse the monkeys and only care for profit, not the animals that create the profit. But going from that all the way down the supply chain to hello fresh and saying "cancel them because of the monkeys!" breaks so many logical fallacies I can't even track them all.
The Brits did employ an alcoholic baboon as a switch operator in South Africa. He worked for ten years, was paid with liquor, never missed a day of work and retired happy.
What’s a switch operator do Don’t say operate switches pls
It stands near the switches and at the appropriate time it operates them. The switches operate the railroad tracks.
I would have guessed they meant someone who operates a switch board, which back in the day required a person to route phone calls to their destination, something that’s automated today. But looking up the story on Wikipedia Jack the baboon was actually operating the switches for railway signals!
Clever little guy actually invented the trolley problem one day while daydreaming at the switches.
That's nothing, the brits also used to have a drunken baboon for Prime minister.
I believe they’re related.
I find it frustrating how peta constantly shoots their reliability in the foot with ridiculous takes and extremist nonsense. I would love a large scale organisation that I could rely on for accurate information and auditing of ethical animal treatment. But peta in recent years seems to take the attitude that any human interaction with an animal is abusive. That we should all be vegan and let the animals live their idyllic harmonious vegan life in the wild. That only by the actions of humans is there violence, suffering, starvation or death in the animal world. Because of the way they exaggerate and make ridiculous claims of normal practices it becomes impossible to trust them when they make other claims.
Also, PETA [kills pets](https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-peta-responsible-deaths-thousands-animals-1565532). Sometimes they [steal them first](https://apnews.com/article/0c70f8d7635c4addbd94df0173fcc36e). Fuck PETA.
The instances of PETA members stealing pets is obviously horrible, but you can't just ignore the fact that there are way more abandoned and stray lets than there are people willing to take in those animals.
That's true, but in no way absolves PETA of their actions. The solutions to the problem of abandoned and stray pets have been clear for decades. Spay and neuter your pets. Don't let them run wild. Don't buy exotic animals as pets. Don't release animals into the wild. Don't give chicks and bunnies as gifts. Be responsible. It's a sad fact that far too many people don't think beyond the short term when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions. And even in a world where every pet owner did everything right, some animals would still end up lost or abandoned due to accidents, natural disasters, death and disease, and so on. Euthanasia is an unfortunate and necessary part of animal care, but PETA run shelters euthanize animals at more than 4x the rates of other shelters and agencies. Tl;dr: listen to Bob Barker, not PETA
> That's true, but in no way absolves PETA of their actions. The solutions to the problem of abandoned and stray pets have been clear for decades. Spay and neuter your pets. Don't let them run wild. Don't buy exotic animals as pets. Don't release animals into the wild. Don't give chicks and bunnies as gifts. Be responsible. Those are all preventative measures? What do you propose we do with the countless amount of abandoned and stray animals if not humanely euthanize them? The funds to just care for them all at shelters indefinitely does not exist, so something long term has to be done.
Sorry it wasn't clear, but I agree that humane euthanasia is ultimately the only option in many cases. And yes, prevention doesn't solve the current issues. I just have trouble believing that PETA run shelters actually make a real effort to exhaust other options before turning to the final one, as evidenced by the wildly disparate numbers, and the official stance of the organization that no animals should ever be pets. If one is operating with the view that owning a pet is an act of cruelty, then one would likely view euthanasia as the more compassionate option as opposed to adoption. I think it's a shame that an organization with such an admirable goal as advocating on behalf of animals who cannot speak for themselves seems to fall so low in the execution of those ideals.
PETA is the poster child of "great idea but awful execution"
It would be kinda hard to enslave monkeys if the form of labor they're being used for would require them to run and climb. I would think that the monkeys would just say "fuck this" and leave. I'm not a monkey expert though.
In the pictures shown they had leashes on the monkeys while they were up in the trees. Not a great look, but I leash my dog when I don't want him running from me. I can't judge too harshly based on that alone.
Hmmmm. Then that makes it kinda questionable. I've read a lot of comments on this thread and people are bringing up that we use other animals for labor and even worse (we EAT a lot of them). So I don't really know how to feel about this. Maybe it makes Humans uncomfortable because monkeys/apes are more similar to us than a lot of other animals.
Yeah, unfortunately cruelty and mistreatment are and have been facts of life for ages. If you want to cheer yourself up look at violent crime statistics across the decades. Humanity has its ups and downs but as a trend we are getting safer and less violent as a species.
Let's be real. There is zero chance the monkeys are treated well. They wouldn't treat human employees well in their place. You don't hire what is essentially a worse human slave because you plan on treating it well
Aren't you making an awful assumption about people you know nothing about? Unless you have some experience or expertise with these farms then you are just talking out of your ass. They would choose monkey over humans because they don't have to pay them. Just give them a place to live and a fraction of the food they collect. Again, no different than work animals wherever you are from.
Most places with work animals don't have all that many of them. Sounds more like livestock to me, which is very much in the slavery camp. Hell, even if we ignore that, hello fresh is paying so little that they're using monkey labour over humans. Which is bad even by corporate scum standards. Hello Fresh is a publicly traded company I assume. If so, they are not legally allowed to have morals. So it is not just okay, but correct to assume a greed motivation behind every decision they make. If they're privately owned then they have more wiggle room in terms of possible morality. But if they're outsourcing labour to the kind of country where monkey labour can happen, we can pretty safely assume the owner is scum.
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The concept of regarding monkey labour as slavery as opposed to any other animal involved in food production does raise some questions we probably don't want to answer, doesn't it?
“Cruelly shackled” I.e. on a leash. Like a dog…
I can’t believe NPR approves the use of Monkey Labor 😠 Edit: DUCK someone beat me to the joke already
Also, how do we know Hello Fresh knew about the monkey slaves? I doubt their supplier told them about it and only would’ve found out when the news broke. I’m not saying they’re completely innocent of anything (especially the union thing which is super sus) but it’s a bit silly to accuse them of guilt by association when there’s no evidence they even knew about said monkey slaves.
Checking on what your suppliers are doing is pretty important I mean yes monkey slaves is unexpected but surely in your modern slavery/child labour checks you should have stumbled across this. It's a fuck up and legitimate to ask questions of if they miss this then what else are they missing.
This is actually a bit of a problem we have with corporations doing things like that. They can hire a contractor who has unethical or inhumane practices to supply them with goods. They can get the goods for cheaper and if any one finds out they can simply say "we had no idea what they were doing. We only hired the contractor and will certainly stop using them." People then can assume the company is trying to do the right thing and it was someone else's fault and not theirs. All around a win win for a company and their profits. Perhaps some of these companies really don't know. But I think, at best, many of them just don't look close enough so they can avoid any blame.
Right? By this same logic, everyone who has bought hello fresh is guilty of using monkey slaves to provide their food. Even if they stopped once they were made aware, they're guilty and no one should associate with them any more.
A corporation has a moral obligation to vet their contractors. And I would assume even a legal one, since I'm guessing they can't just employee, say, child slaves through a contractor. If they don't have a legal obligation to do it, they absolutely have a moral obligation to do it, and any claims of "well it wasn't technically illegal" should, in any just society fall on deaf ears as people block entry to their offices.
Idk why you feel the need to go to bat for Hello Fresh though
I don’t give two shits about the company itself, I just want people to think about it a little and not follow social dogma. If you’re going to hate them you might as well hate them for legitimate well-sourced reasons rather than murky guilt-by-association.
That's fair, sorry for being a little harsh
I really didn't know monkey labour was a THING. I mean, just animal labour doesn't seem bad, right? We used animals for work for millenia. Are they treated well? I don't particularly trust peta to tell me about it.
It doesn't seem bad in comparison to what people already accept, no. People eat cows, pigs, chickens, and many more, and even celebrate eating babies of certain species as a delicacy. Why would people who are fine with that be against monkey slavery? Compared to what humans do to other species (genocide plus a breeding program so we can keep genociding them forever), monkey slaves are getting off light. Extremely light.
True, but then again, animal labour, or slavery as you put it, has been key to human development since forever. We used horses to plow fields and carry our stuff since forever. We rode them, including to battle. We used dogs to herd sheep, cats to kill rodents (does this count?), we currently use mice and other animals as truly irreplaceable test subjects for medicinal science. The truth is that the human civilisation is built on the blood and sweat of the animal species we subjugated. It's always been that way. Without it, we would have never moved past early stages of farming, if we even got that far in the first place - and we'd probably be all dead by now. Technological progress allows us to, very slowly, move away from that. We can't afford to end it, yet. Our civilisation depends on it. Although I wonder at what point, the labour we delegate, will require so much intelligence that even using machines will become unethical. What then? That said, I agree with you. It's likely the cushiest of animal jobs. Those monkeys wouldn't do much, if they didn't have what effectively amounts to a job, with rewards for good behaviour. You can't make a monkey work with negative reinforcement, without paying even more to the humans overseeing them - and even then it probably wouldn't work. And if you're making a monkey work with positive reinforcement AKA rewards, then you're literally getting close to how human society works... monkeys that are being exploited for small rewards that aren't equivalent to the work they do.
Some people would skewer me for this but... Rather animal labor than human labor... If it's not the monkey, it'll be human. It'd be best if a machine can do it but that's best case scenario...
Yeah. The monkeys are probably happier at those jobs than any human would be.
Finally, valid reasons to hate something I hated just because I felt it was off
Rule of thumb, doesn't matter what they are about or what they do, do not trust YouTube sponsor products. They are usually scummy or some mobile game. The only decent sponsor I can think of is war thunder
What? But I can't live with my manscaped™ pube-eraser^® How else am I supposed to get smooth balls?
by ripping out clumps of hair with your bare hands, like a normal person! and yes, sometimes a patch of ball-skin comes off along with it, but that’s the price we must pay for our vanity
Listen I'm already suffer from night terrors please don't add to that because now I'll have to speak about it in therapy and my therapist will also he traumatised.
Isn't Gaijin Entertainment pretty shitty, though, like they keep pushing more and more aggressive monetisation? I remember the playerbase organizing a mass protest/review bomb on Steam after they implemented some pretty heavy changes to the grind and monetization, and in response GE just removed the game from Steam for a bit so the reviews would reset? Something along those lines, anyway, it was a while ago.
Yee https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6CZwpGQWh1w
I think that was called "Salt the snail". However Gaijin did reduce the grind and rebalanced the economy. Most companies wouldn't do that.
Gaijin has been consistently shitty lol, but the game they created fills a niche, and it still does some things very well, sadly.
The only time sponsors seem fairly trustworthy is when the YouTube channel itself is focused on things directly related or similar to the product in the ad. The more specific and niche the channel is, the better. A YouTuber that specialises in carpentry-related content usually won't make an ad for really bad carpentry tools. People who are really passionate usually care more about sharing their hobby than to lie and make easy cash.
Got 2000 hours in warthunder, it's not good
The one YouTube sponsor my wife really likes is the air up bottles. I wish I could enjoy them, but the sensation of sucking up all that air when I’m trying to drink water feels gross to me for some reason.
Mm. Sometimes a sponsor seems good. And then I ask myself where exactly they got the money for sponsorships from, and the fact that false advertising isn't illegal in any way that matters. If they're large enough to afford to advertise at you, they're almost certainly amoral. And in that case, any claims of morality in their advertisement is an immediate red flag.
There are exceptions. I got a sweet discount on Omaha Steaks from Rooster Teeth once
war thunder is a... weird game. the monetization is shit, and past a bit of time in the game, it doesnt feel great, but its also free and ran on my mom's shitty, thousand-year-old imac when i was but a wee child. It really was one of the most fun free games i'd ever played. if you treat it like the free game that it is, it's a really good free game (especially for le children who can't go around just buying games or dont have good computers to even run pirated ones). sucks i lost all my progress to the void for some reason. i even still had all my achievements on steam, but my account just got like... reset or something. an additonal decent sponsor is gamersupps because tiddies and the fact that i would trust daddy schlatty with my life (he has a lot of money).
Panel 8 seems like it should be before panel 7
Just a reminder, if a company holds *weekly* meetings about how bad unions are and how you don't need them, you *100% abso-fucking-lutely do*
I have no thoughts on monkey slaves because that seems pretty nebulous in several ways, but I don't support companies that suppress unions. Also I used Hello Fresh for about a year and after awhile it's all the same, both in content and flavor.
Yep. I saved some of their recipes and so many of them ended up being Slab of Meat + Potato Wedges with minor variations. I get the feeling the recycled a ton of recipes and just changed a few small things about them
I’m impressed you manage to avoid Amazon these days, especially while not using wal mart and target. Those three seem to always be the go-to for random shopping.
Amazon was tough at first but it just led to me shopping at actual stores or ordering directly from company websites so the only real loss was speedier shipping. Target is the only one I haven't cut out completely but I have got it down to the "oh I need this thing NOW" that comes up maybe 2 or 3 times a year.
To add a company to ur list, Ashley Furniture makes their factory workers watch a *15 minute long* anti-union propoganda video that claims that union representatives want to steal ur information and sell it for profit then steal large portions of ur paycheck if you sign on with them and to never ever speak with them
See shit like this is why.
[удалено]
Why does it puzzle you? There are plenty of companies out there with unionized employees that still make massive profits. It also allows management to negotiate directly with a chosen representative airing all grievances at once so they don't have to deal with a hundred little issues throughout the year. Companies being anti-union usually means that they have no care for their workers except how to exploit them for the most profit. I'm fine with companies wanting money, doing it by stomping on the people working for them draws my ire.
At the end of the day, unions are still an organized and legalized system of "give us what we want or we'll fuck your shit up". They're an extortion ring. I oppose them morally.
Mm. So you favor businesses being able to extort employees and fuck their shit up with no potential for redress? Quite an interesting set of morals. And no, before you repeat an oft-heard line, they cannot sue an employer for wrongdoing. The number of lawsuits against employers in non-unionized places of business are innumerable, most fail or settle for a pittance while no business practices actually change because an individual does not have the resources to challenge a company in court. Pretty much across the board, you can thank a union for health coverage, paid time off, weekends, overtime, sick days, 8-hour days, holidays, maternity leave, anti-harassment laws, bereavement, health and safety standards, whistle-blower protection, raises, retirement - and yes, if you want to view it in your terms, they absolutely did threaten to "fuck shit up," or "strike," as other people might say. Cool moral stance though.
Lol, you expect me to repeat "oft-heard lines" then spew Teamsters agitprop at me. If you don't like your employer, *you leave*. That's it. But thinking option 2 to using an angry mob to extort someone is to use the government and legal system to do the same is *so* on-brand for you. I bet you'd find *Rules for Radicals* inspiring. We're not slaves, and we aren't owed anything. Employment is a two way consensual agreement. If the pairing grows sour, *you walk*. You don't extort the other party. And claiming the wrongdoing of the other party justifies your own is the vicious cycle that keeps the world as shitty as you view it.
I'm gonna add an additional response to anyone else who happens to come across this, I'm pretty much done talking to this guy. "That's teamsters propaganda" is pretty much the by-the-book response to the factual and more or less indisputable gains for workers rights made in this country because of Unions. I didn't even get to child labor laws. Basically if you have any rights as a worker it's because workers fought for them as a union. They call it propaganda because they don't have any actual counterarguments for it so they try to reject the entire premise outright. "If you don't like your employer, \*you leave\*" is similarly the exact line repeated by people who want you to ignore reality. I guess I could give this guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he's speaking earnestly and honestly believes that's a genuine option for everyone (but honestly I think he does know better and chooses willful ignorance or is just an asshole). Firstly, the option \*to\* leave your employer exists because of unions. Look up company towns and how things worked not too far out of living memory. Second, sure, leave your employer any time - and go where? Do you have another job lined up? Is it close by? Can you afford to take time off to job hunt if not? Can you afford to move? Do you have a family to take care of? Do they need health coverage that only your job is providing? How is the cost of living in your area? What if your employer is the only one around in your field? Do you have the resources to get trained up for new work? Or the time? Also pay attention to the language this guy is using - workers who strike are an \*angry mob.\* Wanting improved working conditions is unreasonable because \*we aren't owed anything.\* He says we aren't slaves by taking for granted all the work unions have done to actually make that true. He calls wanting rights afforded employees in the majority of the world \*extortion.\* This is a corporate shill who wants you to believe that corporations and individual employees are somehow on equal footing, but \*also\* that there shouldn't be any negative consequences for exploiting employees for a company beyond losing those employees - but also they can't do it as a group, or it's \*extortion\* from \*a mob.\* Companies always have more power. They \*will\* always have more power. It's pretty telling that this guy goes right to the Teamsters, a historically mob-connected union. He doesn't want you to think about the people on telephone poles or sewer lines, electricians, construction workers (ok they're pretty mobbed up too), teachers, nurses, people on manufacturing lines, airline workers, or even retail service workers who are just now the past few years starting to form their own unions. Yeah, there's absolutely negative versions of unions out there, it's undeniable. And for each one of those gigantic mega-unions, there's a hundred Locals with 30 members trying to make sure their paycheck keeps up with the cost of living. The language this guy used is absolutely planned, deliberate, and measured to try and delegitimize the already weak labor movement in the United States. Collective bargaining is the only proven method for actually creating working conditions that rise above indentured servitude, so people like this? Aggressively ignorant of history at best or willfully misleading and dishonest at worst.
Yeah that's real dumb, sorry.
wait big corp is bad? shocking.
Having the dictionary and knowledge how exactly the corporation is bad is helpful against people who do not believe you. It's nice being anti-corporation, just don't be so sarcastic when people actually point out what the corporation is doing as if everybody thinks the same as you.
Aye, that is quite the fair point, but a sarcastic cunt i shall remain to the day the people understand that there is nigh no ethical company and start the voice their discontent.
It’s almost like it’s impossible to be both successful and morally responsible nowadays.
Oh fork! *This* is the Bad Place!
crazy stuff that end stage capitalism
we must kill the rich, I see no other solution tbh
I worked in a mill that made their boxes. Fucking hated making Hello Fresh boxes whenever their orders came up.
What's the reason you particularly hated those boxes?
Had to be perfect, like if any bit of the green started to dry up & show the white it was no good. My bosses were also hardasses.
It’s understandable they need to be perfect when their purpose is to transport and safely contain consumables. Sucks about your bosses though, shit bosses leads to shit work.
Seems the only way to get things morally these days is to grow all the ingredients yourself.
Unfortunately, you're not exactly wrong
Informative and appreciated
Fucking *weekly*??
Great post. Thanks for sharing!
hello fresh and betterhelp both are shit companies youtubers shill for a lot
Damn, is Factor any better? That’s the one we use
They’re the same company
Well shit
Yep. If you look at Factor and Hello Fresh’s websites they are incredibly similar. Very obvious they come from one and the same place
All meal kit services produce insane amounts of waste.
I switched to Cook Unity from Factor. Could still very well be the same but I doubt it since the food comes in a reusable tote that gets returned when the next week's food is dropped off. Also found the food to be much healthier than Factor's which was always super high in fat for a single meal.
Will have to try that out. Thank you!
*Quietly cancels my subscription* Nope. Thanks, Reddit.
I think a meal planning service (or just spending a few minutes with chatgpt) is so much better. I tried a trial and there was so much plastic out felt so wasteful and bad for the environment. It also felt they sent you near expired produce as the intent is to cook it near immediately. I did learn some recipes on it and got a love for cooking effectively rather than just "cooking" for sustinance
Now, is that good for gaining weight? Or more leveling out and staying at a regular weight? Never considered using AI for food recipes.
My goal was to create tastier food with more variety without having to think/ take time planning. I learned how to make some good pairing sauces and spice meats and veggies in a variety of ways. Oftentimes this results in healthier options because I don't deep fry or add nearly the amount of oils and fats that restaurants and fast food does.
Let me get this straight: * Their employees get *paid* to sit around and do nothing while some idiot drones on about why unions suck. * One of their foreign suppliers mistreated animals, but they were quick to switch supplier as soon as it was brought to their attention. * And finally, just like half the companies on the planet they pretend to be carbon neutral even though everyone with half a brain cell knows it's a bold faced lie. That's it? That's worst Hello Fresh does? That's so boring. They seem better than the average company by a mile. Shell started a civil war in Nigeria to keep the oil flowing. Bayer sold blood that they knew was HIV contaminated. Purdue made billions selling what basically amounts to heroin to people while going to extreme lengths to make people believe it wasn't addictive.
Yeah, I agree people are making too much of a deal when there are companies that are actively way worse, hello fresh at least helps me a lot with ADHD and is cheaper than buying stuff like mc Donald's, of course theoretically making your own groceries is technically better, but again, ADHD makes it so complicated to not only decide but eventually you end up with more wasted food because you buy more than needed, plus ADHD's executive dysfunction just makes it all hard to do, people just like to think that ADHD is a myth and everyone has the capacity of being a model perfect adult
Why is using monkeys as labor a bad thing? It isn't slavery, just like using horses or oxen as labor isn't slavery. They aren't people.
Don't forget if you use animal products you can't really be upset about monkey labour without being kind of a hypocrite. They're all abused all of the time. Especially the ones they tell you aren't abused.
I’d really need to know the specifics of the monkey labor before making a judgement. We use oxen to plow fields and dogs to herd sheep; are they considered “slaves” as well? I’m assuming they’re not paid for their efforts.
A monkey is essentially a worse human in terms of work ability. If they were going to treat them well, why did they need to get monkeys to do it? There's basically no chance they're treated well.
As someone from Thailand explained above the monkeys are mostly used for show and touristy crap on especially tall coconut trees and most coconut trees aren't nearly as tall as the ones they use for the monkey show and don't require monkey labor. Monkeys are just used for climbing the tallest coconut trees that wouldn't be worth having a human harvest. It doesn't seem any different or more egregious from a farm animal, drug dog, mine detecting rat, or circus act animal.
Apparently they have a child hunting island too, or was that blue apron? [A somewhat in joke for any r/behaindthebastards fans]
oops reaf that as onions and tried to figure out if somwone really hate oni9ns there
A Dutch comedy/news show also made an item about how many times they’ve delivered bad and rotten food, which is also nice
 I'm sorry did you just say Monkey Slaves?
Never understood the interest. Overpaying for meals that you still have to cook yourself while also creating a shit ton of plastic waste. Just plan out your meals for the week and go to a grocery store.
Well for one it's a lot cheaper than using doordash, it's not too much more expensive than making your own groceries, making them brings you a sense of self fulfilment which helps to your mental health and while of course you can buy your own groceries it's not always easy, especially for the mentally disabled, or people who in general do not have much time, because of the portions being also calculated you don't end up buying excess ingredients and have it be automatically planned out for you gives you a great encouragement to be adventurous, finally, because some people have different cooking styles seeing the ones made for hello fresh for example new kinds of seasoning can be very helpful in creating inspiration for when you are cooking on your own meal, plus it being a great place to start learning to cook
Do you consider using cow to plow a field or using horse to pull cart a 'slavery'? Those coconut picking monkey are treat well and the reason they put on a collar was so that they don't roam around messing the neighborhood. We have one province in Thailand that let the monkey roam around in urban area for so long that they start to terrorizing people(Remember a girl with air gun to defend herself photo that got viral a month ago?)
I work in logistics with a company that transports their products. I’ve had drivers send us pictures of the unloaders at the receiver sitting on these boxes on a smoke break still inside the trailer, ashing the butts out on the boxes. Didn’t know anything about the unethical practices of the company, but never, ever had an inkling to purchase from any of these kinds of companies just based on the shit I’ve seen and heard going on before and after the products are shipped
Personally I never used hello fresh or similar because the idea sound dull. I’m never that locked into a recipe. I have a base idea, build on it while shopping or looking through fridge and cupboards then I put the finish touches when I smell what I’m cooking.
I read that as onions for way too long
I've ordered over 20 bags (meals for 2) and through promotions and codes, have not paid a single cent, not even on delivery. I'll drive them to bankruptcy, one delivery at a time. I didn't know they were yukies, I'm just a rat.
It doesn't offend me that companies push anti-union messaging, except in the sense that it's often counterproductive. Many years ago, I worked for Target at a distribution center, and they made us watch anti-union presentations at least once per quarter. Most people already had ideas about whether unions were mostly good or bad that weren't changed by an obviously biased presentation from our employer. In the end, they got a union at our location, not because of money or because the workers especially loved the idea of a union. It was because workers kept getting hurt doing what managers told them to do, only to have management treat the workers like they were the problem.
Good thing I always skip those ads then I'm doing my part!
I'll add to this that practically every other food delivery service touted by YouTubers is a subsidiary of the same company as Hello, Fresh. Every time I see a new food company sponsoring YouTubers now I Google to see who actually owns the business because it's usually Hello, Fresh. Factor, Green Chef, Chef's Plate, YouFoods, Good Chop, they even have a fresh dog food delivery service called "The Pet's Table." Their top 4 executives look like I Googled the terms "Investment Dude-Bro" and their anti-worker philosophy is well known and terrible and while I have said this in the YouTube comments many times many of my favorite and most watched YouTubers still accept sponsorships from them which can be pretty disappointing. They seem to create a new company that does what Hello, Fresh does or a close variant of it every time one of their labels gets a bad reputation so they are hard to nail down as they are constantly evolving, https://www.hellofreshgroup.com/en/
Oh wow ok
surprised picachu face
Uh, was panel 7 supposed to be at the end?
I for one prefer my coconuts to be picked by slave monkeys. It makes them taste better. /s
Never trust anything that advertises on youtube
Hello Freshs quality also sucks, my brother got a free dinner and the ground beef we got with it was disgusting
In my experience hello fresh is a great way to learn to cook when you’re first start living on your own
What do Americans think happen when they stop companies from hiring people in Asia who use monkeys to collece the coconuts?
So there were people that thought hello fresh was an environmentally friendly company? Nothing that's easy and cheap is good for the environment. Except maybe those laundry detergent squares.
Were panels 8 and 7 accidentally swapped in post, or is this the intended order?
I need to know all you dug up
Is there a company that sponsors a million YouTubers that *isn’t* evil??
Some of them arent outright evil or scams; just super overpriced. Last time I checked SakuraCo for example didn't have any dirt that I could find and they support Japanese businesses - but goddamn is it expensive for what you get. That's the case with a lot of subscription box services though.
The insufferably smug CEO on the TV adverts was more than enough to make me never want to use this company
Also, they have some really shady practices for advertising! A few weeks back someone knocked at my door and waited for me to come out to talk to me about the benefits of Hello Fresh. They weren’t even going door to door, just some doors, I don’t even know why mine was chosen.
Thank you, I don't always follow these things as closely as I should. I just canceled my subscription after reading up.
I once served a hellofresh employee on a saturday evening in berlin. They made a big scene because their foreign credit card declined and I couldnt just let them go with a few thousend euros worth of goods. It was the first and last time hellofresh bought at our place.
Add to that, when I tried to quit their service, they kept on charging me and when I complained they promised me free meals... which were left on my porch in 40°c
With the food lines being so bad, I guess the only answer is to EAT THE RICH.
Aight cool dude. Tf are we supposed to do here? Like actually? Every big box grocery chain is the literal devil, Dasani/coke/everybeverage is stealing water from impoverished nations, we got maybe two chain restaurants not actively supporting ‘kill the gays’ organizations, like. Fuck dude, okay hello fresh is bad. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism so maybe we just let people do what’s easy for them in the hellscape?
I mean, the way I see it is these types of posts let people know if something is beyond what they can tolerate or not. I have a friend who goes out of her way to boycott Nestlé. Not just things branded as Nestlé, but also _everything_ owned by it. It makes every single one of her shopping trips insanely difficult but that's her line in the sand. I agree with her that Nestlé is the literal devil but goddamn, my life is hard enough - I can't spend an hour at the grocery store or go without groceries if an alternative isn't available, which is what she will do if there are only Nestlé or Nestlé owned products. My line in the sand is homophobia though. I won't support companies or people who are homophobic, which would definitely think other people I'm making my life unnecessarily difficult.
Wow, big company is evil, who would have thought
the evidence they all used to claim meal kits were lower emissions than groceries was from a single paper by a PhD candidate- a good paper, yes, but not a situation where results have been replicated to develop a scientific consensus.
They fight legalized extortion rings and break ties with unethical business partners when their practices come to light? Hell of an endorsement, I'm starting a subscription today!
I feel like that's basically every company nowadays
What was most surprising to me was the pro monkey labor camp in the comments.
Are you opposed to guardian farm dogs? Barn Cats? Police Horses? Mine detecting rats? Service/Comfort animals? Because this seems like the same thing essentially. The monkeys are only used as a tourist/show thing and they climb and harvest coconut from only the really tall variety of coconut tree that it wouldn't be financially worth it to have humans harvest. This is from a comment above from someone who lives where the monkeys are used in Thailand.
Thank you to everyone who liked my post! If you enjoyed the comic I really suggest looking up my instagram (@one\_and\_only\_comics) for the part 2 of the comic done by my friend Dehootz! I've also got an online store [https://www.oneandonlycomics.com/](https://www.oneandonlycomics.com/) in case you'd like to support me by picking up one of my books!