Are you a 'localvore'?
@owlwings (43897)
Cambridge, England
December 29, 2007 7:43am CST
When you are in the market, do you look at where food is produced and choose to buy the more local product?
Especially for fresh produce, I am amazed that it is economic to fly green beans and roses into the UK from Kenya, for example.
I recently visited California and was astounded to see produce that I know could be grown there but was imported from even as far away as New Zealand! Even the avocados were Mexican when, 50 miles or less from LA are acres and acres of avocado!
With gas/petrol prices rising, is it realistic to expect, for example, to have strawberries or asparagus all the year round? They used to be seasonal luxuries. What ever happened to the delight of the new season's strawberries or cherries?
On occasion I have seen imported produce selling cheaper than local produce alongside it! Can anyone explain the sense in that?
2 people like this
3 responses
@Vucjak (242)
• Macedonia
29 Dec 07
Whenever I can, I buy products made in my country. Especially when it comes to milk, milk products, eggs, meat, fruits and vegetables. Buying local products means investing in the local economy. It is way better the money to stay in the country.
And the only explanation to your question, is that the workers are payed very low in some countries, and that's why the products imported are cheaper than those made in your country.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
29 Dec 07
I would agree that the workers are paid a great deal less in some countries than others.
The argument FOR that is that the rate of exchange does not map well onto actual cost of living in countries compared, so, though, in the UK the labour cost included in an article may seem low, the workers are still paid a rate which allows them to live better than they otherwise would. I still have concerns about child labour in some countries and it is rarely possible to verify, for example, that workers in Kenya are being treated as fairly as workers in the UK (quite apart from money).
IF all these things are taken into consideration and, by buying goods from Kenya, I am helping to give people employment who would otherwise be destitute, then perhaps the 'carbon footprint' does become more reasonable. One has to balance the 'carbon cost' of shipping against the extra costs of producing the same article in this country (heating of greenhouses, marketing rakeoffs and monetarily higher wages).
It is not a simple equation and I am not sure how aware many people are of it, even if they do 'think local'.
1 person likes this
@dorypanda (1601)
•
30 Dec 07
Yes, I do tend to look for the tractor logo on things, if I can't find the tractor I look for where it's made, I like Cheddar cheese (made in Cheddar), Lincolnshire sausages (made in lincolnshire) and Yorkshire puddings.........(actually made here in the Midlands by me, but you can't get much more local than making your own).
I can sort of explain it, I did see some article somewhere about it (sorry, can't give you the reference, I forgot where it was). Basically there aren't enough farmers farming the things we need here and therefore they have to charge more for their produce. Foreign places tend to farm more of whatever it is and therefore charge less because they produce more. (Well, I think that was the jist of it anyway)
1 person likes this
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
30 Dec 07
I know next to nothing about how all of this works. Even though some of the bigger chain stores have their own farms, perhaps outsourcing to other countries is still cheaper in some instances. Labor tends to be cheaper almost everywhere else than in the US.
