How can YOU best spend YOUR money to support a society YOU wish to live in?

Buying Local is a wonderful little trend that has been taking off in a wide variety of places around the world. Mostly, it is thought of to be catching hold in the more liberally minded, well-off locations in the Western world. In some ways, I have also known it to be an old culture entrenched in the working class conservatives of the US, but in those circles it’s called “buying American”. However it’s phrased, a question arises for me: “why is this important?”

Nine years ago I used to be the manager of a warehouse grocery delivery service called S.P.U.D. (Small Potatoes Urban Delivery) in Seattle. The company was originated out of Vancouver, Canada. At that point in time C.S.A.s (Consumer Supported Agriculture), out of small production farms, were growing in popularity and “farm fresh” grocery delivery services, such as S.P.U.D., were cropping up alongside this movement. S.P.U.D. advertised itself proudly to provide “food miles” on every customer receipt that told just how far the produce traveled to get to one’s front door, to show just how locally one was eating from.

In the break room, the Head of Purchasing and I often got into, what I found to be, quite interesting discussions about sustainability, whether another delivery service was a positive or negative thing socially, and the question of why are we emphasizing buying locally. We agreed this last question had at least two answers.

One was the support of a local economy. To buy from farmers in one’s area, as well as locally based markets that sold for those farmers, meant to use one’s hard earned cash to develop the businesses born out of their own region and thus help keep, and develop, it as an area to one’s liking. In this way, the region one supports can continue creating jobs, creating more cash flow through the area, and grow through basic capitalistic method. This principle I also hear behind the “Buy American” mantra, although there the “region” is that nation’s economy, not just one’s town or neighborhood.

This is also the mindset behind creating a local currency. In creating a region-specific currency the money is then more restricted physically to being earned and spent in that locale since it has little to no value outside of that area.

A second reason to Buy Local is environmental and has to do with pollution in transit. For some things, like the produce we were selling, this also implicates freshness. How long does it take a carrot from being pulled out of the ground to being put into a customer’s mouth? A day, a week, a month? How is it stored, using how much energy, if this time frame is for more than a few days; or what sort of chemicals went in to it to preserve it longer?

Here in Peru, two out of every three liters of milk sold over the counter are produced by Gloria. This milk comes in a liter tetra pack and sits on the shelves in the grocery store unrefrigerated for weeks, if not months, at a time. To those used to shorter lifespan refrigerated milk this often comes off as appalling. However, take a look at the fruit you’re buying. Is it shiny and perfect in appearance? Would it be possible to grow within 10 miles of where you live? It may be that it is heavily coated in wax, genetically modified, and/or traveled at least a week or two, if not a month, from another country or possibly even another hemisphere.

While in this managerial position I had the privilege of attending a conference on groceries, encompassing delivery, health, produce, etc. There I learned something very interesting about distance vs. pollution. An example was given to illustrate a point which I’ll repeat here. If, let’s say a grocery store in Stockholm, were to order a container full of broccoli for its inventory, the more environmental solution, transportation-wise, between Spain or Brazil could easily be Brazil. The reason is that the container would be transported from Brazil to Sweden by a freighter boat and delivered directly into Stockholm’s port. Coming from Spain, it would likely be transported by truck, or freight train, traveling overland to arrive at the market. The freighter ship would come carrying hundreds, if not thousands, of containers, and the freight train likely no more than a hundred, if not less, containers. Coming by truck, the container of broccoli would be the only container being transported on the use of all that petroleum the truck would need. Thus, if you divide the number of items being transported by the amount of fuel spent to move it, the freighter ship wins out easily despite the distance traveled.

This, and some considerable time spent traveling around the US and Latin America, opened the concept for me to ask myself what is the real intent behind this Buy Local movement. Buying Local appears to have become a slogan, or brand, and as such it seems to have risen into daily habit and above questioning. Just south of Seattle, I went to a farmer’s market that only permitted local businesses to sell there, and there was a Starbucks booth in the market. True, Starbucks is from Seattle, but does it fit with the intent to Buy Local? If I were to buy something from Walmart in Bentonville, AR, where it is home to, am I buying local? By definition, yes, but by understanding of the principle behind the slogan/brand, I would argue that I am not.

The question further complicated itself for me when I began to look at this movement as supporting only small local businesses, like a small local coffee shop chain of two or three stores rather than a Starbucks in its hometown. Does this movement reject growth into a larger scale on an assumption that a company once-small-gone-large will, by necessity, assume poor environmental business practices in its growth? Would it lose sight of feeding into a local economy once it begins reaching outside of a certain geographic region? I believe there may be an understated goal in the Buy Local movement for the small to grow large in a way conscious of environmental practices. As well, for each store, or outlet, to be a financial support to their respective neighborhood or town. However, as this is not openly talked about I am not clear on this. As a small business owner the question of how to grow ethically concerns me a great deal.

In my understanding, the movement to Buy Local has the intention of returning to support small businesses rather than the corporate monopolies. The Buy Local movement has the feel of wanting to move away from a Corporation form of Big Government and return to those quainter times of buying from your local grocer who sells food produced by your neighbor, the farmer, as exemplified in The Andy Griffith Show of the 1950’s. I would go so far as to argue that it would be more within the principles of the Buy Local movement to be in the US and buy produce from a small cooperative of farmer’s growing holistically in the mountains of Peru than to live in Seattle and buy coffee from Starbucks. This is my opinion on the movement; however, I recognize the literal definition of the words would dictate the opposite.

In conclusion, I encourage everyone to continue to ask the questions: “how can I best spend my money to support a society I wish to live in?” and “how can I lead a comfortable life while supporting the environment?”