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 ...
Every increase in transportation costs makes local farming and manufacturing that much more attractive.
I head for the organic section of HyVee, locally grown or not.
My carbon footprint, stomps your hybrid.....
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.
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.
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)
Victory Gardens
Neighborhood Co-ops
I wonder what the cost is going to be to fight scurvy in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the winter?
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.
Hm...interesting way of looking at the topic.
LOL!
Texmati rice is grown in Texas. Lots of rice is grown in the U.S. We don’t have to import rice, so relax!
Thank you for wallowing over there. I’m glad you got home.
Sweet corn must be bought locally. Directly from the farmer. Who picked it that day.
Anything else is nto sweet corn.
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*
I appreciate it....*S*
We grow local too, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, hot peppers, green beans, carrots, cantelope, eggplant and herbs.
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....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.