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Should We Buy Only Locally Grown Produce?
Mises.org ^ | 15 July 2008 | Art Carden

Posted on 07/18/2008 7:24:43 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Let's suppose that people do decide to "buy local" with the goal of saving the world and reducing their carbon footprint. This will increase the demand for locally grown foods, but it will also have an unintended and likely deleterious consequence; it will increase the demand for farm implements and labor.

Since the decision to buy locally is essentially the decision to forsake comparative advantage, every unit of agricultural output will be more resource intensive than it would be under specialization, division of labor, and trade.

In other words, each additional unit of output will require more resources than it would under trade. To take a concrete example, this means that the cultivation of spinach in Memphis will require more fertilizer, more rakes, more tillers, and more hoes than the cultivation of spinach in California. Producing these implements will (again) require resources, which will require specialization and trade. We could push the problem back a step and say that we should only use locally produced implements, but we can only regress so far before we run into an obvious problem of definition (how "local" is "local"?), resource constraints (different regions have different natural endowments), and widespread destruction (denuded forests and gouged lands as people assemble locally produced stone tools for cultivation).

"Buy local" is, at its logical limit, a prescription for poverty and starvation.

(Excerpt) Read more at mises.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: environment; fairtrade; foodsupply; freetrade
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I guess we "buy local" in that we grow our own watermelon, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatos, and broccoli out in the landscaping.
1 posted on 07/18/2008 7:24:43 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Every increase in transportation costs makes local farming and manufacturing that much more attractive.


2 posted on 07/18/2008 7:27:22 AM PDT by ichabod1 (If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it, and if it stops moving, subsidize it.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

I head for the organic section of HyVee, locally grown or not.


3 posted on 07/18/2008 7:27:53 AM PDT by sarasota
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

My carbon footprint, stomps your hybrid.....


4 posted on 07/18/2008 7:28:37 AM PDT by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Smoot Hawley for the win!
/it worked out so well last time we got all self sufficienty
//another unintended consequence is putting a drug gun on every campesinos who’ll be made jobless.


5 posted on 07/18/2008 7:30:24 AM PDT by kinghorse
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

We buy local, organic food not because of the environmental issues. It’s just fresher and it tastes better than mass-produced food that has spent days in transit.

And as transportation costs increase, the price difference is going to shrink.


6 posted on 07/18/2008 7:30:38 AM PDT by Citizen Blade
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Even if you don’t just “buy locally”, you should at least “buy American”...

Up until recently, you never much heard of salmonella outbreaks other than chicken, eggs, and reptiles...

Now, you hear of it from tomatoes, broccolli, lettuce, asparagus, avacodoes, jalapenos...Mostly stuff that’s IMPORTED...probably fertilized with human “fertilizer”.

(One reason I haven’t eaten rice since 1968 when I wallowed through rice paddies in a far-off land and saw close-up what it was grown in)


7 posted on 07/18/2008 7:30:49 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: ichabod1

Victory Gardens

Neighborhood Co-ops


8 posted on 07/18/2008 7:33:15 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

I wonder what the cost is going to be to fight scurvy in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the winter?


9 posted on 07/18/2008 7:33:53 AM PDT by RightField (The older you get .... the older "old" is.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
I buy local when I can, and even frequent small, private farm stands in the area for tomatoes (that actually taste like tomatoes), zuchini and lettuces. I get my eggs (fresh) from a local farm here in Ocoee. They're amazing -- I didn't realize just how stale store-bought eggs can get.

I refuse to buy anything from Mexico, instead I grow my own avocados, and have found alternate sources for fruit and berries.

Unless I'm totally misguided, I'd rather give Florida's economy a boost when I can.

10 posted on 07/18/2008 7:34:37 AM PDT by RepoGirl ("Tom, I'm getting dead from you, but I'm not getting Undead..." -- Frasier Crane)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Hm...interesting way of looking at the topic.


11 posted on 07/18/2008 7:36:40 AM PDT by rwfromkansas
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To: RightField
"I wonder what the cost is going to be to fight scurvy in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the winter?"

LOL!

12 posted on 07/18/2008 7:37:26 AM PDT by lormand ("The Planet is fine, the people are $%#ed up" - George Carlin)
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To: Boonie

Texmati rice is grown in Texas. Lots of rice is grown in the U.S. We don’t have to import rice, so relax!


13 posted on 07/18/2008 7:38:18 AM PDT by SatinDoll (Desperately desiring a conservative government.)
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To: Boonie

Thank you for wallowing over there. I’m glad you got home.


14 posted on 07/18/2008 7:39:49 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Worthy is the Lamb)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

Sweet corn must be bought locally. Directly from the farmer. Who picked it that day.

Anything else is nto sweet corn.


15 posted on 07/18/2008 7:41:27 AM PDT by SoothingDave
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To: SatinDoll

Yeah, I know what you’re saying...but it’s kinda like I can’t enjoy 4th of July fireworks either...They make me sorta jumpy...

Anyway, I ain’t starvin’...*grin*


16 posted on 07/18/2008 7:43:09 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: huldah1776

I appreciate it....*S*


17 posted on 07/18/2008 7:43:51 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: Gabz
Garden ping list interest.
18 posted on 07/18/2008 7:44:12 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (A vote for any Democrat from BO on down the ticket is a vote for $10 a gallon gas.)
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

We grow local too, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, hot peppers, green beans, carrots, cantelope, eggplant and herbs.


19 posted on 07/18/2008 7:45:20 AM PDT by alice_in_bubbaland (Obamamaniacs idiot's one and all !)
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To: huldah1776

And this is for everyone, not just huldah1776...

Make an effort to thank a “troop” whenever you can...Don’t allow our servicemen and women to come home to the reception I and my fellow Viet vets received when we came home...

Show ‘em we really care....


20 posted on 07/18/2008 7:46:11 AM PDT by Boonie
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