These past few weeks have been interesting for us over here at the Hut. It has presented us with some really difficult decisions. And like everything in life, our decision around how to proceed is a work in progress. There are no easy answers, and just as many hard questions. 

For many of us, the first instinct when faced with the bullying tactics of Trump and his cronies was to cut all ties, to say no to anything to do with the US, which is incredibly understandable. 

After the possibility of  tariffs were announced, we started to receive emails from folks asking us to source whatever we had been buying from the United States from elsewhere. In the case of our California-grown walnuts, that would be Eastern Europe; our California pistachios would need to come from the Middle East; and our Arkansas pecans, maybe Mexico, or much further south. Meanwhile, we had already purchased a significant portion of these items at harvest time prior to the threat of the tariffs!

Here's the thing that we have to navigate: our farmers have values that align with ours. It's why we have chosen to work with them. Our pecan supplier, Shirley, in red-state Arkansas, is the loveliest human. Her family has been farming pecans for generations. The land they grow on, along a riverbank, is a designated and protected site, so that it will (hopefully) always be growing native pecans, using minimal water, providing homes for animals, and birds. And Shirley and her team are part of that defense, at a time when US national parks are losing their protection, and other parklands are being threatened throughout the US. Shirley is a powerful grandma, and isn't afraid of speaking up, and is vocally opposing these things. She is doing the work from within the US to keep those lands protected. And to also say no to tariffs as she sees the harm they will cause to many small businesses and lower-income folks. I truly appreciate her. So this last week, we made the decision to purchase all the pecans we would need for the year from her up front, because if tariffs come into play, at an additional 25%, we can't afford to buy, or sell them.

Our walnut farmer, and our pistachio farmer, are by our side in this as well, trying their best to help us figure out what to do, while also standing strong in California with their opposition to what is happening in the US.

So, yes, we have a small percentage of products that come from the US, but if we were to shift to getting them elsewhere, the environmental burden of transporting them from afar, while also dealing with political issues in other parts of the world, would also create their own level of concerns for us. So, yes, we will continue to buy from them, because they are our allies in the US against the current administration in the White House. Boycotting them, and removing the financial support we offer them through our purchases, means they are less capable of affecting change in their country.

The internet has many lists of US companies who are supporting this administration that are worthy of our ire and our boycotts. Boycotts work, so let's do it! But, let's do it in a way that supports our allies in dismantling systems from within, as well as applying the financial pressure of boycotts from the outside.