I've never been into organic food. Perhaps the pesticide washes on vegetables and fruits will kill that nasty stomach flu before I even notice I have it. Or maybe the amount phosphorous fertilizer will give my skin that radiant tan without stepping foot in the sun or a tanning booth.

Rather, I've always been a proponent of local food. I'll pay more for a foodstuff if I know that a farmer 5 miles down the road grew it, even if it was produced non-organically. You can go to your whole foods and buy "industrial organic" food that was grown in California, but put on a truck and driven 1000s of miles across the country to get to your table, totally negating any environmental benefits of its organicity (and spell check tells me this is a word).

This bothers me, and I might be the only person who sees a commercial and then contacts the company telling them how I disagree with their message. I got very irritated recently when I saw a commercial for some dairy company advertising how you should buy their product because it comes from happy cows in a happy state. Why would I want to buy dairy products put in a semi and jostled across the country to end up in my grocery store, when I could just get some cheese made by a local cheese maker and dropped off at the store every few days. A brand identity that promotes long distance travel of dairy products is a stupid campaign and I sure let them know that. They did respond with a letter saying that they were a family business as well (isn't everyone part of a family?) and that they had to compete by such means.

But buying locally is hard. You cannot buy all your food from your county, let alone the US. I started on Monday my campaign to get my Mom to buy only items that are made in the US for the next 30 days. Essentially we've avoided shopping this week. The cupboards are dry, the refrigerator is empty. Getting fresh fruits and vegetables this time of year means that it was grown in Chile or Argentina. Even frozen green beans were grown in France. But our goal goes far beyond the kitchen pantry. Mom can pretty much forget about buying any new clothes or electronic device - sorry she's out of luck. I haven't decided what I'm doing for gas yet, I'll just have to buy from a company that doesn't import a majority from the middle east and refines most of it locally.

I guess the point that I'm personally trying to discover is that it's a disappointment that what can be done locally is not done locally anymore. Cheap oil taught us to be wasteful and centralize activity. Economics teaches us that trade benefits all. If you can do something cheaper elsewhere then do it there, and trade for something you can't do. But is it worth it? Do we really need to have avocados in our life or Chilean Sea Bass. Do the people of Brazil really need our Napa Valley Wine? Surely we lived without Foie Gras in the 18th century so is it necessary now?