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Absurdly globally-sourced product story

Unread postPosted: Thu 26 Dec 2019, 18:28:25
by JohnDenver
About 10-15 years ago, there was a story floating around about a latte (or some other product) that required an incredible amount of inputs from all over the world. It was a sort of "reductio ad absurdum" of global procurement. All the components had to travel thousands and thousands of miles to assemble this one dumb product that could easily be produced locally. Does that strike a bell with anyone? Would love a link if anyone can remember (or if you know similar stories in the same vein). Thanks in advance.

Re: Absurdly globally-sourced product story

Unread postPosted: Thu 26 Dec 2019, 18:35:23
by Newfie

Re: Absurdly globally-sourced product story

Unread postPosted: Thu 26 Dec 2019, 22:02:51
by Zarquon
I could swear I read something, years ago, about green olives filled with pepper paste. Harvested in Greece, shipped over some absurd distance (S. Korea??) to be filled, then to Portugal to be put in jars and cans, then trucked all over Europe to shops. But I can't for the life of me find a link - googling any term containing "filled olives"... you can guess what you get. I gave up trying.

Also, the energy required for transporting a pound of olives halfway around the world per ship is probably pretty low, compared to moving the same amount per truck, so I'm not sure if that's a good example.