Buying Local never looked so good

Published 04-30-2020

Growing up with the newspaper as the family business, more than a few things were drilled into my head from a young age, but none more than “Buy Local.”

More than groceries and the drug store, our business was done in town if it was available in town. Supporting those that support your community used to be commonplace, but as we’ve gotten further decentralized as people with the advent of the internet, the old rules of growth and monopolies - of centralized power, remain.

After decades of leveraging and buyouts, so much of what we buy is done under the banner of big corporations. Whether a franchise or brand, dealing with large corporations seems to be more than commonplace in today’s world than ever before. These brands become so large they dominate industries, lobby for special rules and regulations, and dictate markets.

Big Ag, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Government... none of them are demonstrably responsive in times of crisis, and usually end up doing just as much harm as good.

Tyson Chicken took out a full page ad in the New York Times this weekend sounding a warning bell about their supply chain disruption while they close plants for hard core sanitization after having COVID outbreaks in their facilities. These “indefinite” closures - happening across agricultural processing facilities, do pose great harm to our food supply both in the near term via shortages, and in the long term depletion of the national stockpiles.

Yes, food processing is essential business, but running food processing plants without necessary sanitation between shifts or protective equipment for all employees was playing roulette with the food supply chain. Stories have abounded of plants (not necessarily Tyson) running without enough PPE to protect workers. What do the bosses think will happen?

We aren’t able to fully mask our health care workers without unleashing an army of home crafters. And that is before we even get into the gowns and gloves. It’s definitely in the realm of knowable outcomes, but Tyson would rather pay money to blame others for a crisis that was completely within their control.

Allowing processing facilities to grow to the point that closing one plant can necessarily decimate an entire industry is not going to be good for us in any term. Specialized production lines may be great for profit margins, but are hell when you’re throwing away product that would replenish the stockpile our nation is starting to tap.

Dairies dumping milk, potatoes and produce rotting in fields (counted as harvested by the government bean counters), hogs and beef slaughtered and buried. Meanwhile, ports are open to imported food products and we can’t get a Grown in USA label. Independent regional grocery stores, fast becoming the way of the dodo in the era of big box chains, used to be a good hedge against this type of scarcity.

Reopening the economy does no good if common sense procedures aren’t in place that suit both the type of business and business being done. Regional answers, shopping local and becoming self sufficient in all the important things like food, medicine and machines will help to cure the economic problems we face after this virus is corralled.

We hold the tools to fix the problems, but it will cause short term pain. Not really something politicians will usually get behind, because those that hearken bad news are usually punished at the ballot box. “To get to a healthy economy we have to finish killing this one off,” doesn’t go so well on a bumper sticker. Neither does “Spend more because we screwed up and offshored everything of value.”

But we really do have to kill off some really bad ideas and real world policies that have resulted in government sending memos to our ranchers encouraging “depopulating” those with supply glut while that same government also encourages beef imports from Africa, but won’t tell us which is which.

It’s all part and parcel of the cronyism that has infected our politics and country. The consequences of our leaders selling us convenience as a lifestyle choice are being realized on a nationwide level.

There is no reason for there to be any kind of food shortages in our nation. Period. American farmers could literally feed the world with our bounties.

Mismanagement of resources at a national level, economic policies designed to cripple family farms, commodity pricing bent by choosing winners and losers, environmental and water regulations that require teams of lawyers to comply, fuel pricing - farmers are hit by all the sides, all the time.

The management of our national food supply is way beyond your local dairyman, farmer or rancher. And like many of our precious resources it has been squandered and pillaged at the same time by those who want to profit, but can not do themselves.

Way beyond the decision to dump a tank of milk, throw out 100,000 pounds of onions or potatoes, to let a field rot where it sits. Not one of our farmers, ranchers and dairymen like making those choices. It’s not just money and labor, though the losses still must be counted. It’s not just the waste, though I’m sure that stings fiercely.

Much like Candidate Bloomberg, so many of those at the top think farming is throwing a seed in the dirt, giving it some water and voila... PROFIT. They don’t understand the way of life, the years of knowledge required to make it through one hard farm season, let alone a black swan catastrophe like this virus has caused.They don’t understand caring for a herd of animals, watching seeds through growth cycles and storms, nursing babies and crops to peak, then being told too bad, we can’t honor our contract, but we’ll pay you pennies on the dollar to retire.

Beyond disheartening, these same farmers are then criticized on social media by those who have no clue of how we feed our nation or the delicate balance that is our perishable commodity market.

Meanwhile, half of our leaders can’t even be bothered to show up to do their jobs. You know, the guys and gals who passed all the laws to create the exact consequences we find ourself in.

The House of Representatives will not be meeting before May 4th, no matter whether the Senate decides to convene or pass relief bills.

Must be nice to live in the rarified circles of Speaker Pelosi and her caucus.

Seems to me showing Americans that you’re unnecessary during a crisis is exactly why Congress’s approval numbers hover somewhere in the low teens. Continuing to play politics against your fellow Americans as half the nation is shuttered at home with lots of free time usually isn’t advised.

Could we come out on the other side of COVID better off as a nation, yes absolutely, I would never bet against the American people finding ways around and through the absolute worst. But I know with just as much sincerity that the government’s help will cause way more problems than we started with, and we already have plenty.