One of the comments to
Will Wilkinson's article was this one:
Wil, you need to do a little more research into Buy Fresh, Buy Local before you get on your soabox. Eating locally and seasonally keeps more of the food dollar in the local economy. In western Minnesota where I'm from that is very important. Local foods will keep more people on small farms and help decrease our national dependence on petroleum. Modern corn and soybean production puts money in Monsanto, Archer Daniel Midland, and the other conglomerates pockets at the expense of local economies. Local food puts the food dollar into local farmer's and grocer's bank accounts.
I posted a response, that I don't know if the MarketPlace editors will approve. So I'm posting it here as well:
Mike Jorgenson says, "Eating locally and seasonally keeps more of the food dollar in the local economy." This is false. First, it's irrelevant how much money is kept in the local economy. What's more important to wealth creation is taking advantage of those who can produce the most efficiently.
But suppose your goal is to keep more money in the local economy. If so, then don't forget that when I spend less to buy remotely produced food, I keep money in the local economy. Suppose a locally produced food costs $2 and the same remotely produced food costs $1. Buying the remote produced food immediately keeps $1 in the most local economy possible: my own. Now it's highly unlikely that a local producer could come anywhere near matching the economies of scale that a large remote produce can take advantage of. So it's highly likely that the profit margin of the local producer is lower than $1.
So if I buy remote I keep $1 in the local economy. If I buy local, I keep less than $1 in the local economy.
But like I said, keeping money local is irrelevant. What matters is efficiency. If the local producers are more efficient than remote producers, then buy local. If not, then don't. How do you know which is most efficient? The one who can sell their product for the least price is the winner. Buy from that person. That's the best way to make yourself and your neighbors wealthier.
