Buy Local?
Atlantic Canadians are being encouraged to eat locally as part of the Eat Atlantic Challenge sponsored by Co-op Atlantic. This challenge, which is also endorsed by the region’s provincial governments, is designed to promote the benefits of consuming local foods, which has been in decline among Nova Scotians.
However, Buy Local is wrongheaded thinking.
If Nova Scotians are buying less locally produced food we can only assume local produce is deficient, either on quality, volume or price or a combination of the three. Why else would Nova Scotians buy New Zealand apples or California strawberries from a world away?
Food should be viewed as a commodity and farming as a business instead of treating it as somehow privileged. Instead we should encourage development of Nova Scotian international agri-business brands such as New Zealand’s ENZA, just like any other Nova Scotia industry, by substantially lower taxes and lower business costs so the ingenuity of Nova Scotian ‘agri-preneurs’ can develop and grow.
And unfortunately Buy Local will retard that. Buy Local rewards local producers simply because they are local regardless of whether they produce efficiently or have superior quality. If Buy Local makes consumers pay higher prices and/or accept lower quality for the privilege of ‘buying local’ then this is simply (another) subsidy to the farming industry and an encouragement to remain inert, a state that Nova Scotian consumers are voting against with their dollars. Consumers should be left to buy the best value there is regardless of origin. Unless the Nova Scotia farming industry is willing to embrace progress by getting off farming subsidies and the government is prepared to encourage business profit, the Nova Scotia farming industry will continue to give up market share to those who are willing to embrace efficiencies, progress and change.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
> If Nova Scotians are buying less locally produced food we can only assume local produce is deficient, either on quality, volume or price or a combination of the three.
On what grounds?
The purported ‘free market’ is in fact a network of cartels, and the reason you get potatoes from Idaho instead of PEI is that the grocery store owns the farms there (or vice versa, or both are owned by the same holding company).
September 30th, 2009 at 7:23 am
And why would the grocery store buy Idaho potatoes, to take your example, pay the cost of shipping half way across a continent, instead of PEI potatoes?
Because even with the additional costs there is still more profit to be made than sourcing them from PEI. So PEI potatoes, from the grocery store’s point of view must be deficient; either not enough volume, too expense, poor quality.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Yes, perhaps Idaho potatoes are more profitable from the grocery stores’s point of view. So, to my mind, there is something terribly wrong with this equation, i.e. Idaho potatoes being cheaper than the potatoes from PEI. This is rediculous from the perspective of the ordinary citizen. It is likely a result of current multi-national marketing and transport systems, which favour the Idaho potato. Quality has nothing to do with it. In a sense, it’s the same system that allows cheap Chinese goods to flood the market – certainly quality has nothing to do with that; rather, volume and price are more likely the culprits. Is that good – I don’t think so (poisonous chemicals in their canned goods and lead in the paint on their toys)?
So, do you prefer eating Idaho potatoes because they can flood the market at a cheaper price? I don’t. For one thing, how were those potatoes grown? What chemicals were used? At least, I know a little bit more about the growing conditions of PEI potatoes. Besides, the last time I checked in my grocery store, both PEI and New Brunswick potatoes were plentiful and competitively priced, thank you.
However, the point I want to make here, is that there is a growing movement in Nova Scotia, towards individuals growing their own vegetables. I predict that this will expand with each passing year. This is true individual initiative! Yes, grow your own veggies, so that you know what’s going into the soil, and that you have the satisfaction of eating something you’ve grown yourself! The other trend or movement is buying from local producers in your own community – either going directly to the farmer, or to a farm market. This is growing by leaps and bounds. Here, again, you know the produce comes from local soil, and you can easily find out what the heck’s gone into the soil, itself. This is wonderful and circulates money back into the local community, and to heck with the large agri-farms in Idaho!
One final comment. I smiled when you mentioned California strawberries. Who the heck would buy California strawberries, unless local strawberries were out of season! You can’t be serious? They’re usually tasteless, but I won’t comment further on the California strawberry. Just last week, I saw one in Atlantic Superstore that looked like Arnie….
Anyhow, enough said.
All the best to you and to the party.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:07 am
AP is all about individual initiative. If people want to grow their own vegetables or go directly to the farm, more power to them. However many people do not have the inclination or time for such and so must rely on food production and distribution channels to make produce available, however encouraging consumers to buy PEI potatoes versus Idaho potatoes when Idaho potatoes are a better value is counter productive since PEI producers are not getting correct pricing information which will encourage them to improve their processes; personally I want the whole world to eat PEI potatoes but we have to get there by innovation via competition not by subsidy.
Concerns about chemicals, growing practices etc will be addressed the moment consumers start to base their buying decisions on these factors. It sounds from what you say that this is happening, great! The market adapts.
Inexpensive Chinese goods abound because consumers want them. By utilizing lower manufacturing costs in China the living standards of working class families and the poor in Atlantic Canada are raised. Walmart has done more for the poor in the last twenty years than any other entity. And at the same time workers in China are given a chance to improve their lives by earning higher wages than they would normally (how do we know this, because they choose to work in manufacturing).
My wife and I have probably bought California strawberries if they are priced right and look good, but usually they are too expensive. So there you go, opportunity for a local agri-farm specializing in strawberries.