Some fun chopstick facts: most chopsticks in the world (including China) are made in Georgia (the US state, not the country) because of the ready availability of cheap pine. One of the major reasons pine is so prevalent in Georgia (and in the US South in general) is slavery: cotton plantations in the pre-artificial fertilizer era tended to exhaust the soil after a few years, leaving pine trees as the only profitable crop that can be grown on much of the land.
Cotton is a destructive demanding crop. The post industrial era cotton farming has left swaths of land poisoned with arsenic and all sorts of nasties (chicken concentration camps are bad for arsenic too.)
(chicken concentration camps are bad for arsenic too.)
This is caused by roxarsone in chicken feed. I think they stopped using it several years ago, but I’d expect that this has caused lasting damage in some places.
Most of the chopsticks I’ve seen have been hardwood, plastic or metal … I guess there’s more disposable ones by quantity in the world because most people don’t have or carry their own?
Anywhere you have trees there are chopsticks. The only time I use them is when I don’t have silverware in the wilds, either the wilds of the woods or the wilds of the endless wastelands of the automobile lands. Break off a couple twigs.
Some fun chopstick facts: most chopsticks in the world (including China) are made in Georgia (the US state, not the country) because of the ready availability of cheap pine. One of the major reasons pine is so prevalent in Georgia (and in the US South in general) is slavery: cotton plantations in the pre-artificial fertilizer era tended to exhaust the soil after a few years, leaving pine trees as the only profitable crop that can be grown on much of the land.
Cotton is a destructive demanding crop. The post industrial era cotton farming has left swaths of land poisoned with arsenic and all sorts of nasties (chicken concentration camps are bad for arsenic too.)
This is caused by roxarsone in chicken feed. I think they stopped using it several years ago, but I’d expect that this has caused lasting damage in some places.
Most of the chopsticks I’ve seen have been hardwood, plastic or metal … I guess there’s more disposable ones by quantity in the world because most people don’t have or carry their own?
Anywhere you have trees there are chopsticks. The only time I use them is when I don’t have silverware in the wilds, either the wilds of the woods or the wilds of the endless wastelands of the automobile lands. Break off a couple twigs.