A billion dollars a day, plus chocolate and seltzer

As I continue to search for new, interesting, local, healthy snacks, I typically see the usual suspects on every shelf everywhere, crowding out the aforementioned "craft" snacks. How did they get so ubiquitous? And, are some of the brands we buy actually just offshoots of a big megacorp (the answer is, too often, yes). Recently, I came across this rather intimidating chart over at the Oxfam America website:

Yikes! If you are trying to avoid putting your hard-earned greenbacks into the pockets of multi-nationals, good luck with all that. The dominance of these ten companies is staggering in its scope and depth. However, you can go to BehindTheBrands.org to see who owns your favorites and how they treat their suppliers and farmers.

Or you can keep supporting local companies and help your local economy and community thrive, like these five chocolate bar specialists.

Finally, seltzer is good.