Local Purchasing - Rationale For Local Purchasing

Rationale For Local Purchasing

Advocates often suggest local purchasing as a form of moral purchasing. Local purchasing is often claimed to be better for the environment and better for working conditions. Others contend (with empirical evidence) that local purchasing and contracting enhances local job creation and wealth while strengthening community cohesiveness.

The first potential moral benefit is environmental: Bringing goods from afar generally requires using more energy than transporting goods locally, and some environmental advocates (for instance, Amory Lovins) see this as a serious environmental threat. Transportation contributes to environmental contamination in addition to the pollution caused by chemical inputs in the growing phase. Of course, locally produced goods are not always more energy-efficient; local agriculture or manufacturing may rely on heavy inputs (e.g. industrial agriculture) or energy-inefficient machinery and/or transportation systems. However, small-scale growers tend to be more environmentally friendly because industrial-sized agriculture uses genetically modified crops, monoculture production, and chemical fertilizer intensive processes to grow crops—practices that local farmers typically avoid.

The second potential benefit is creating better working conditions. Nonetheless, while diverting purchasing from developing countries to local farmers helps build the local economy, it can lead to worse conditions for poor farmers in developing countries because it removes potential buyers from the market.

The goal of localization is not necessarily to eradicate globalization; rather, it is to reduce unnecessary transport and to strengthen and diversify community economies. This calls for condensation of agriculture and supports the idea that local farmers are capable of sustaining a community.

The term “Buy Local” has become subject to varying interpretations. While leading advocates of local independent business such as the American Independent Business Alliance say the term should apply only to locally-owned independent businesses, some campaigns run by governments and Chambers of Commerce consider local to be merely a geographic consideration. Additionally, many corporations have manipulated the term in ways critics call "local-washing."