June 5, 2012

• Local F

  Recently I watched something on HBO about these kids in New Orleans who were trying to get better food supplied to their schools. One of the ways they wanted to go about doing this was for the company that supplies the school with food to buy local. Which really got me to thinking, why is it that more food is not sold or bought local? Now I should clarify that by any means I am not even close to be an expert of any kind on this topic but to me, buying local just seems to make a whole hell of a lot of sense. Of course, part of a big obstacle of buying local is that most stores just flat out don't sell local. But there seems to be more to it than just selling local. 

  So what are some of the benefits of buying/selling local? Well for those of us that are environmentalists, local means a smaller carbon footprint which helps to drastically reduce emissions. Let's face it, there is literally a world of difference from buying something that was grown 50 miles away as opposed to buying something that was grown 3,000 miles away or even further as is the case with some imported products. If you are concerned about the emissions being pumped into the air than this might be the biggest benefit and reason to buy or sell local.

  And what about the freshness? It certainly seems to reason that something that was grown locally is going to be much fresher than something that was grown all the way across the country, processed to withstand the cross country transport. Again, I'm just guessing here, but I would imagine that food grown/sold/bought locally would require far less pre-sale maintenance than food that is shipped from Washington state to Florida. By this rationale, than something grown locally is not only fresher, but also healthier than something that was grown far away and transported. I'm thinking the same can be said for other food products that are not grown but produced locally, such as dairy, salad dressings, or other food products that needs to be kept cold. My thinking is the fewer chemicals needed to keep a food product alive, the healthier it has to be for a person.

  But the cost is what is baffling to me. To be honest, I have had very limited exposure to local foods, but when I find something that is local, it always seems to be more money than something that is not local. Herein, is where the problem lies; how can you reasonably expect people to pay more money for something that is local? Oh sure, all of the above reasons are great, but let's be realistic, for most people the bottom line is the bottom line. People are going to buy what they can afford. And quite frankly, I don't blame them. But, how is it that the cost is MORE for local? It doesn't make sense. Hell, instead of the cost of moving the product by train or cross country on a semi, it is the short distance cost of moving it, say 50-100 miles. Now I'm no mathemagian, but even know I know shorter distances cost less money. So can somebody even possibly explain to me how local costs more?

  • 11:46 pm
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