Over at TMC Barrett explains his beef with the Eat Local movement, and I couldn't agree more. If you believe in trade (and for the sake of argument...) then it's hard to see how you can be opposed to trading food across long distances, especially when so many of the folks you're trading with have nothing else to trade. It's all well and good to support local farmers, but a broad campaign against imported food is kind of a big fuck you to the third world, isn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if the movement was masterminded by some slick marketing wiz at ADM, to tell you the truth.
And I'm tempted (but this would be going too far, wouldn't it?) to relate this to the whole American xenophobia is on the rise phenomenon. After all, isn't your hatred of immigrants really about trade policy and the way cheap service labor is ruining job opportunities for all the good Americans who have been waiting patiently in the wings for a job? I know mine is! Come to think of it, those immigrant folk are burning an awful lot of gas on their way up here... shouldn't somebody be keeping an eye out for the public good?
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