In the 1940′s you had little choice, local store or out of your garden (or someone else’s garden)… Now we have infinite choices from online and in person supermarkets and locals stores.
I love buying from local shops in our town BUT just because I’m supporting local business doesn’t mean I’m buying local. Confused?
Local fruit/vegetables/ meat can often cost a business more to buy and with less variety for their customers. NOT GOOD BUSINESS! Remember the broccoli drought this year?
If you were ‘buying British’ this year you’ll have noticed the lack of British grown broccoli (all from Spain at the moment). This was due to our particularly wet weather knackering (Spectacularly English technical term LOL) this years crops.
AND SO… our very local grocers sold imported broccoli* to a largely unsuspecting public. *Among other veg/ fruit in a similar situation… potatoes didn’t have a good time of it earlier this year)
So… when you ‘Buy Local’, have a thought as to who it is you’re really supporting…
Local business that are often forced to import their goods OR
Larger supermarkets and foreign stores that actually stock fairly large amounts of British grown produce (e.g. we’ve been buying our greens at ALDI recently BRITISH grown ONLY of course)
It is such a difficult choice! I am always struggling around the ethics of food, is organic better than local? But what about the livelihood of the Kenyan farmers if we don’t buy their beans? How fair is Fairtrade really? We can only do our best but sometimes I find it difficult to know what exactly doing my best means!