Sure you can choose to buy whatever you want. If a company decides it needs your business they might change their irritating ads or poor labour practices. Many companies are doing this for exactly that reason.
But those things have some purpose for overall good in your mind. Buying locally just because you feel some relationship with local people clearly doesn't do any good overall.
Sure it does - if anything it does more good than the other practices I engage in. It, after all, supports individuals in the local economy. All the other practices simply take a tiny amount of money from one huge mega-corp and give it to another mega-corp. They're basically feel-good things on my part, with no discernible effect.
It's like buying only from white-owned businesses. Maybe you do that too?
If you need to resort to insults to make your point, you've already lost the argument...
Probably it's because people want a reliable supply so they need to have extras to make sure they don't run out of stock, or maybe people want unbruised bananas or whatever.
Nope. The most common reason bannanas (and other fruits/vegs) are thrown out is appearance - people want perfect-looking produce. Most grocers simply dump produce that is blemished.
If a farmer or any businessman can't compete then his business should be allowed to fail.
But the flip side is that a nation incapable of feeding itself is enslaved to those who provide their food. Food is the oldest, and most profound, national security issue.
here's a question. If you visit another place, will you prefer to buy things made there?
Yep, do it all the time. Many years ago I did some HIV research, and spent some time in Africa. While there, I made a point of buying everything I could from local vendors and producers. Even today, when I travel for fun or work, I try to buy what I can from the local community - even if that is as simply as eating at a mom&pop type restaurant instead of McDonalds.
Bryan
