For mayonnaise, if you’re in Quebec, I strongly recommend MAG.
I know it’s not a real option for many, but for those who can afford to I’d also recommend shopping local for groceries as much as possible. We need to stand together in the face of these tariffs, but I don’t love the idea of Loblaws and co. standing to gain so much from the struggles of the public yet again.
Check out local grocery stores and smaller chains like Co-Op if they operate in your area for Canadian made goods. Look and see if there’s a local farmers market you can buy staples like eggs and produce from. It’s the little guys that are likely to face an existential threat from all this international non-diplomacy.
Honestly at least where I live the difference between farmers markets and grocery stores isn’t that big anymore. Given, I live on an island where non local stuff has to be shipped and the prices raised because of that, but I’ve been preferring the quality of local veggies way more. Though understandably if you’re struggling to make ends meet, I see why even a few dollars would make a difference.
Have to make sure it’s a real farmers market though and not one that just buys bulk and resells calling them farm produce, often at a considerable markup.
I already shop almost exclusively at the local Polish grocery store. I have no idea what some of the products I’m buying are haha.
Probably mostly just kiełbasa, twaróg and kapusta. A good diet.
Edit: a “t”
All these mysterious pickled vegetables.
Absolutely! This is the year where I finally sign up for a CSA. (I’m not a good cook and have always been a bit intimidated but apparently most come with recipes and honestly, all the AI has made me a lot more confident in my ability to “find” a few recipes with whatever random ingredients.)
I am not as against AI as your typical lemmy user, but I think LLMs generating recipes might sometimes not work the best? Especially if you are limiting the ingredients. If your on-hand ingredients typically wouldn’t be combined, it might hallucinate and spit out the recipe for some food crime creation. Maybe you’ve had a different experience though?
Oh, definitely not worth blindly trusting but I’ve had pretty good success when grabbing whatever is on sale at the grocery store or in excess in my pantry.
That being said, I use it as a planner, not in a “what can I make with what’s on hand.” So, a CSA box would have the stuff that I’d plan around! I haven’t tried more off the cuff but I rarely cook that way.
I know basic food safety so I’m only worried about a bad meal but of the last ten meals I made based on ai, a couple are going in my standard rotation and all but 1 worked out well. (The 1 being just fine.)
I quite enjoy seeing “President’s Choice” on this list.
Is it prescient, poignant or just apt?
à propos
Yeah, the “president” there is Dave Nichol, who was a former president of Loblaws. A lot of it is just marketing, but Nichol actually did personally taste and approve things with the President’s Choice label. The Loblaws test kitchen was actually right next to his office. These days it’s just the Loblaws premium in-house brand, and my guess is that a lot of it is made in America, shipped to Canada, branded as “President’s Choice”, then sold in the monopolist’s store.
Earth’s Own is Canadian and makes pretty good oat milk.
I’ve already switched to them for a while since it’s more affordable than other coffee creamers.
Their Batista oat milk is great too, I legit prefer oat milk to dairy for most things, tastes better in coffee drinks imo.
100% Oat Milk lattes are no joke.
I like getting their almond milk packs from Costco.
Sold at Dollarama too, for the same price that other stores tend to have on special only.
If Coke etc are canned in Canada do they get tariffs? The Canadian people deserve better than PC cola.
They shouldn’t, one of the goals of tarrifs is to encourage production in-country
Buy local and donate the difference if you really care. That way Rump doesn’t get that 25%, and it’s tax free.
I have to see what this tariff war does to prices here first but yes agreed.
I can’t wait for 2028.
I hope you can vote in 2028
Me too.
Don’t forget the mid-terms in 2026. The damn Democrats better wake their asses up, take back the House and Senate, and start helping the dumb bastards in the red states or this shit will continue.
BioSteel was bought by a conspiracy theorist/Guru type last year that also owns Canadian Protein. For anyone that needs proof just lookup the owner and his social media.
PVL is probably a decent Canadian alternative.
Those chips brands are so much better than lays.
Edit: Isn’t ms Vickies Canadian too?
Miss Vickie’s is now owned by PepsiCo, sadly
So it’s a whole Tim’s thing
I stopped buying Lay’s when they stopped being Hostess.
Yes they are.
Miss Vickies originated as a Canadian brand but was purchased by Frito Lay in the 90’s.
Damn. Those are the best chips.
:(
Seeing all these American companies earnings go down next report would be glorious.
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You were ahead of your time.
But also small businesses will suffer or collapse and that sucks.
Maybe it is more of a, “well now that they’re here what’s the silver lining”?
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I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how Canadian my stuff already is. It makes sense, I guess - shipping costs something, and I look for deals.
The really hard thing will be fresh, perishable goods, so I’ve spent the last several years moving onto all-pantry recipes. Detergent is also weirdly American, although Tru Earth is Canadian.
Unfortunately, shipping is insanely cheap. That’s why to make a T-shirt you get cotton grown in Egypt, shipped by a huge container ship to Indonesia where it is turned into cotton yarn. That yarn is then loaded back onto a huge container ship where it goes to Bangladesh to be turned into a T-shirt. Then, it’s loaded onto a huge container ship to be sent to the US for people to buy. All that shipping only adds $2 to the total cost of $12 or so, and then it’s sold for like $20.
Depends on weight, too. Textiles are really light per value (and if it’s Egyptian cotton maybe this is a nice shirt, even). A can of potatoes is quite different in that respect.
But yeah, shipping is still reasonably cheap. Which is good - not everything can be made in Canada, or like textiles made here at reasonable cost, and it gives us the option to not use the US as long as our ports have enough capacity.
It’s good that shipping is cheap in some ways. The problem is that it’s cheap because it uses the absolute worst kinds of fuels that are incredibly polluting. The fact that shipping is incredibly cheap is a major reason why the climate is changing.
Hmm. I actually doubt that’s true at this point, except for aircraft. The thing is you can’t convert everything to EVs overnight.
You doubt what’s true? That transportation / shipping is a major contributor to climate change?
“the transportation sector contributes 20.2% of global CO2 emissions”
International cargo container shipping is only about 2% of global CO2, but that’s still 10% of all transportation-related output coming from shipping alone. Imagine if every 1 in 10 vehicles you saw on the road was a little boat, that’s how much international shipping contributes to CO2.
You shouldn’t convert everything to EVs overnight. EVs aren’t the answer, public transport and alternative transport like biking is the answer. A nasty deisel-based bus almost certainly contributes less to climate change than 30 personal EVs, especially if you consider the entire life cycle.
Transport is going to be the hardest thing to convert to not use fossil fuels, because the biggest advantage of fossil fuels is the massive energy density of the fuel. An EV has to lug massive batteries around with it everywhere it goes, but a gasoline car just needs a relatively small fuel tank. For small personal vehicles it might be possible to accept the compromise, but it’s going to be a lot harder to get rid of fossil fuels for buses, trains and especially airplanes and ships. So, the answer there is not to switch to EVs, it’s to reduce the use as much as possible. Stop flying around the world. Stop ordering things from overseas. Stop driving personal vehicles and take public transit.
Right now, the biggest sector contributing to global CO2 is electricity and heat production, but solar and wind are getting so cheap that it’s just a matter of time for those to be converted. You don’t even need to give incentives, the cheapest solution is now the cleanest. The energy density of the fuel doesn’t matter in those cases. But, transport’s going to be a harder problem, and it’s the one we should be working on now.
You doubt what’s true? That transportation / shipping is a major contributor to climate change?
No. That it can’t be done without emissions.
EVs aren’t the answer, public transport and alternative transport like biking is the answer.
Biking and public transit for cargo?
Cargo bikes exist, and trains are effectively public transit for cargo.
I just came back from groceries, and I went in with every intention to not by anything from the USA. Much to my surprise, I’d say 90% of what I usually buy are products grown and made in Canada! The rest were from Spain, India, etc.
A few were made in Canada using domestic and imported ingredients, so I’ll be looking for all Canadian alternatives.
Orange juice was the only American product, and was a “one last time” purchase.
FYI, oats, most legumes and beans, and tomato products are nearly all Canadian.
Unico is a great Canadian brand for tinned beans, tomatoes, etc. I always buy it.
Wait…
French’s ketchup is Canadian but French’s mustard is American???Okay I’m not Canadian (or USian for that matter), but it’s common for big companies to have many production facilities and many product lines, so similarly packaged and named products are made in different countries and nobody pays any attention. Common example in my country is that since like two decades ago, Põltsamaa Felix was acquired by the Norwegian company Orkla, they’ll make some things here in their Estonian facility (in Põltsamaa, the town the company was named after) and then they’ll make some in Latvia or Lithuania, some in Sweden, etc. Unless you look at the package AND it states the country, you’ll have no idea.
Those are some grim coffee options. If your store carries jumping bean (mine does) they’re from Newfoundland. There’s some good rosters you can buy online like Detour. Of course if you’re in a city like Vancouver Montreal or Toronto you have endless local rosters but even smaller towns will usually have one or two good ones.
I actually get mine only from a local coffee shop. I’d rather drink less and buy better local quality anyway. I have a subscription and they deliver once a month. It’s nice!
Any recommendations? I do kicking horse or ballzacks but its like $15-20+ per bag of beans, its a bit crazy now. I’m willing to try any alternative that has enough caffeine and tasts halfways decent.
I can’t speak for coffee, but I know several good local tea shops! Still not as convenient as the Starbucks on every corner, sure, but often better.
Van Houtte is pretty good imo. There is also Napoleon
I’m in Nova Scotia and only drink Just Us - it’s roasted here and both Sobeys and Superstore carry it.
https://www.coasttocoastcoffee.ca/ Run by a buddy of mine. Excellent coffee
Local roasters are the way if you ha e them.
as an aussie, this is all so fucked up… we have basically nothing here that’s canadian, but i’m certainly switching all my shopping and services away from US brands in solidarity (RIP vegemite :p)
global solidarity against the fucking bully
at the very least, anyone could be next… but even without that somewhat selfish take, canadians don’t deserve any of this
I wish more international trade was based on who shared our values, vs. what’s cheaper. Aussies, Canadians and Kiwis all share values far more than Canadians do with Americans, despite the close proximity and shared culture.
I think Canada imports some Aussie and Kiwi products, like some wines, some fancy honeys, etc. But, unfortunately, both Canada and Australia are mainly resource-based economies these days, and export a lot of raw resources to be processed into goods in other countries.
yeah 100% agree. most of our resources go to china to be processed into the stuff you buy
i’ll buy shit loads of maple syrup and be real happy about it - as expensive as it is here 🥺
Is Vegemite American made? Wow. My SO is Australian and his family would bring him some when they visited. We can only get Marmite here.
This isn’t going to be easy but the orange rapist doesn’t seem to comprehend that we can hit them where they live.
it’s owned by kraft yeah; i remember a big thing about it being sold in the 90s
we also have marmite, and another one that AFAIK is still aussie called promite (just skip the thermite for eating; that’s different)
Crikey that Thermite can be spicy!
well we ain’t here to fuck spiders after all ay
