Thursday, September 6

Buy Local, Be...

As a fan of "Buy Local, Be Local" and a relentless "foodie" (see the other term on MR's blog) I find myself enjoying the bounty that is Summer and Fall in the Northwest, but sneaking into the produce aisle for the guilty pleasures of citrus, mangoes, bananas and such. While I whole-heartily support local farming, farmer's markets and artisan food producers I don't feel the need, nor the calling, of someone like Kingsolver to join the "100 mile" experience.

This came to a head for me a few weeks ago while discussing Kingsolver's book on her "100 mile" experiment for her and her family to limit themselves to only eating food grown or produced within 100 miles of their home. Having not read the book, I would be an idiot to critique, but I simply have two issues with the experiment:
  1. This seems like a "high-class" experiment - I would like to experiment with only using a helicopter for my transportation needs. I would encourage others to do the same, expound on how it is one less car on the road, lets me spend more time with my kids, gets me more in tune with my avian roots and I would even be willing to heli-pool my daughters Kindergarten class.
  2. We don't live in a bubble - Rugged individualism was one of the things that led pioneers to settle the West, aliens to migrate and utopians to utope. But remember, pioneers & migrants were/are, typically, poor and looking to make an opportunity for themselves, for there were/are fewer and fewer from whence they came/come.
I must say, I am intentionally supporting my local community, but hesitantly giving up my support of global commerce. Any thoughts?

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