Time to ramp up 'Buy Local'

You may have noticed in a couple of places in this particular edition, notably on the front page, we’ve highlighted ‘Buy Local’ initiatives in the region.

It’s impossible to understate the value of such campaigns, especially when the local economy – and the livelihoods of people everywhere in the Annapolis Valley – depends on a vibrant, vigourous and lucrative agricultural community.

There’s no question the traditional paradigm that constituted the family farm is either under threat of extinction or has disappeared already. Farmland is fast becoming a source of revenue as real estate for cash-strapped farmers who can no longer compete in a global market and whose local market has been eroded by cheaper goods imported from elsewhere.

Awareness of the problem is a huge factor. We’ve taken our farmers, their efforts and the goods they grow for granted for far too long and now we’re on the brink of having to pay for such complacency.

Only lately has the issue of buying local picked up steam even though the farm community has sought such support repeatedly in the recent past. And despite an espoused willingness to support homegrown products, too often consumers are manipulated by price to the detriment of our neighbours who struggle to make ends meet.

I wanted to get a better handle on this notion of ‘buy local’ before I started this missive, so I went to my favourite web browser and typed in Buy Local.

Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, and there were literally dozens of sites that detailed Buy Local Days, Buy Local Weeks, Buy Local coupons, Buy Local strategies, Buy Local online videos. You name it; it was there.

I was heartened mightily to see this kind of support, but disappointed almost immediately because fully a hundred per cent of what I found was connected to regions in the United States.

When I added the word ‘Canada’ to my search request, what had been excitement initially dwindled in direct proportion to the number of sites that popped up and dealt specifically with a Buy Local mandate.

Here are the first five sites: • LocalHarvest – why buy local (Cool! That works!); • Buy Locally Owned Group – Belleville (All right, but ….) • View Sonic: Where to Buy: Online Merchants – Canada (About as ‘buy local’ as I am bilingual); • Best Buy Canada, Store Locator; and, • Hometown Horizons (something about a bookstore…?).

There you have it. Very nearly zip, folks. And what does that say to you about ‘buy local’? I’m afraid it says to me that, compared to awareness of the issue in other places, we’re light years away from where we need to be for this thing to take off.

If our agriculture industry and economy is to be sustainable and ‘buy local’ is to succeed, we have to get the word out.

Educate yourself about the value of buying local and then walk the talk. We need everyone – man, woman, child, business groups, community organizations, promotional agencies, governments, educational institutions, you name it – to grab this idea and run with it. Right now we’re not getting the job done, and far too much depends on this.