Typically, I am inclined to provide a full analysis of an article on the local movement from the perspective of Local First Utah but authors Miguel Bustillo and David Kesmodel do an excellent job presenting the full scope of the trend with in this case with regard to Wal-Mart in the August 1st edition of The Wall Street Journal. Please read the pdf part 1 and part 2 for the full story.
Bustillo and Kesmodel actually craft language that obliges the reader to ask some really obvious questions without outright villainizing any of the parties involved. For our purposes, the most interesting aspect of the piece is the fine line that multi-national corporations now dance on between the cost of fuel and transportation and the higher price of local, often smaller farmers—and how ultimately buying local maybe isn’t the most cost effective, but it responds to a demand.
That, alone, is a huge victory: “most of the chains say their main objective is to satisfy changing consumer preferences.” Of course, the article makes several good points about how some companies might resort to simple changes in marketing strategies to meet customer expectations rather than actually changing how they do business, but the idea is still encouraging.
Unfortunately, food is only a tiny fraction of the total picture, big box or no, since the vast majority of major manufacturing is now conducted overseas where labor is cheaper and poorly regulated. That means most days the very best we can do is buy our food from local farmers, and, of course, consume less.
In the meantime, we can take heart in knowing that the big boxes are responding to customer demand, and though such demand forces a shift in business from established relationships to new, local farms, it also encourages diversity in the marketplace. But marketplace diversity is only the beginning. Next, can we can hope for a return to broader systemic diversity (rather than centralized power and concentration of wealth) and even better business ethics providing for ecological diversity? Probably not. Note that the corporations in question aren’t shifting because it’s right; they’re transitioning because their customers have demanded it. But it’s good to hope for diversity because, well, diversity is resilience in any system: individuals actually contributing to a whole. Keep demanding! Keep choosing local first, and if Wal-Mart is your only option, then ask for local. There’s power in unity.
Words by: Andrew Dash Gillman
