Locavore Store

"There's no place like home."
--Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz)

The author of this article offers a harsh take on the 'buy local' crowd. He argues that, when it is done to stimulate local economies or to save the planet, buying local is a bad idea. Buying local only makes sense when there's 'good value.'

But individual taste preferences vary. What seems terrible value to one individual may be great value to another. Some may not be willing to pay $2 more per pound for locally grown veggies but others may. Paying more may be a fine trade for people who enjoy psychic income from supporting local growers or eliminating a carbon footprint or two.

Locavores that vote with their wallets signal to producers that their output is valuable and that they should produce more. Over time, competition will drive even better quality (quality as defined by the buyers) local produce at lower prices.

Demand has been growing for local as well as green products. Much of this demand has been of the pure, grassroots type. Classically, supply follows demand in such instances. A nice demonstration of free market dynamics.

What pollutes this system is government intervention. If, for example, government decides that it is a good idea to subsidize local growers or to 'invest' in green technologies to create local jobs, then signals coming from the market get distorted, capital gets misallocated, and standard of living goes down rather than up.

Some of this is already going on courtesy of the Obama administration.

Hopefully this meddling will cease, lest local markets will not develop to their full potential.