Buy local stuff! Wait...Buy local stuff?

A major flaw in the case for buying local is that it is at odds with the principle of comparative advantage.



Consider the main arguments for buying local.

Argument 1: Buying Local Foods is Good for the Local Economy
The community does not benefit when we pay more for a local tomato instead of an identical non-local tomato because the savings realized from buying non-local tomatoes could have been used to purchase other things. Asking us to purchase local food is asking us to give up things we otherwise could have enjoyed—the very definition of wealth destruction.

If we, as consumers, require that our food be grown locally, we cause the food not to be grown in the most productive, least-cost location. The "keep the dollars local" argument fails to recognize that a dollar sent out of the local economy by buying a non-local food must, eventually, return to the local economy in terms of dollars spent on exports.

Locavores seek to export goods without importing, which can happen only if the exports are given away for free—the equivalent of foreign aid.

Argument 2: Buying Local Foods Is Good for the Environment
Local foods travel fewer miles, but an environmentalist must be concerned with more than the tailpipe emissions from farm to market. Consumers must also travel to buy their food, and the variety of foods offered in supermarkets minimizes the need to make multiple trips. An extra trip by a consumer to the farmers' market is likely to expend more energy than was saved by reducing the distance the food travels. Moreover, fresh local foods often require more at-home preparation, where energy use is less efficient relative to that of large-scale processing facilities.

The truth is that the energy expended transporting food is relatively unimportant.One recent study indicated that over 80 percent of the global-warming impacts of food consumption occur at the farm, and only ten percent are due to transportation.

Argument 3: Local is Fresher and Tastier


people can—and do—make tradeoffs between the higher cost of buying local against the higher freshness. Moreover, freshness need not equate to localness.

Argument 4: Local Food is Healthier and Should be Served in School
If improving nutrition is the objective, why not seek more-nutritious food regardless of where it is grown?