Make Sustainable Purchase Decisions and Buy Locally
November 15, 2008 by Tracey
Filed under Sustainable Development
Regardless of your reason for doing so, it is true that buying local can save a great deal of the carbon and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Considering just how much fuel it takes to get most products from an idea to a typical shop, there can be a tremendous savings in pollution and resources when making purchases from your neighbors.
Sustainable purchase decisions might also include buying items to last a lot longer than their mass-produced counterparts. Hand-crafted goods often use better quality materials and pay much stricter attention to build quality. Farmers’ markets are often a good place to find local craftspeople who’ve made their products from locally derived materials, too.
When making a commitment to sustainable living, it’s hard to get far without making some sort of stand on buying local fruits and vegetables. Supporting the local economy with your stomach can also mean going to locally-owned restaurants that make use of produce, eggs meat and diary that come from a short distance away. You can choose locally produced products at many supermarkets and co-op stores.
Buying local can also mean taking advantages of local services. For instance, why use a far off photo processing lab when you can go to your local print shop and have some made by people who really understand photography? There are other experts in your area that you can visit, rather than doing business anonymously and overseas.
The words “local” and “sustainable” have become buzzwords for advertising in the last few years. Even people who are not particularly well-versed with what that means, know that it’s a smart and noble thing to do. It takes some getting used to when switching over to a sustainable lifestyle, so you have to assume that there will be a bit of a learning curve.
It is often easiest to get used to re-evaluating your lifestyle for sustainability by changing one thing at a time over the course of perhaps several years. Look something up when it interests you. You can start buying local by finding a good restaurant or even just a nice place to walk to. If it’s good, you’ll go back, and it’s easier for local things to be good.
Sustainable agriculture includes the businesses and consumer that use the produce grown. It also includes organic, but also includes people who grow organically but are not invested enough to fill out a bunch of paperwork and pay several thousand dollars to get certified. Such an exhaustive process is necessary for the majority of farms and ranches in the US.
Even if they are using organic approved methods, most adherents of sustainable agriculture wouldn’t call the average hog farm, now with over five times as any hogs as was average just 15 years before. There is no way to protect animal welfare in such systems. Sustainable systems can be large, as in the case of the Brazilian rain forest on a 500 year cycle. But, they cannot be intensive without management.
Grazed beef, for instance, is available to many people as a premium local product. When buying local, beef actually has a far lower impact on the environment than “conventional” beef products. This is true for nearly all the various members of the edible kingdom.
You can purchase a bike instead of a new car, if you’re ready for it, that’s been recycled from bike parts into a bike that’s suited just for you. You can hire local micro-farmers to turn up your yard and start growing organic vegetables for you and others. Buying local is taking advantage of all the unique resources that are made for your situation. Not only will you save money and pollution, but you’ll also meet your neighbors who are also practicing sustainable living.
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