My last Fast Company column is up now. (As explained previously, my Fortune contract is exclusive for business writing, so I can't write for Fast Company anymore.) I expect that this will get me more than the usual allotment of hate mail, but you can only walk into so many Brooklyn boutiques with piles of artisanally crafted chocolate, sweaters knittedly lovingly by resident hipsters and all-caps exhortations to "BUY LOCAL" before the implied self-righteousness starts to make you twitch. (Me, anyway.) There are good reasons to buy local, but they're usually not the reasons why people actually do. From the column:
The same people who are horrified by the xenophobic implications of "buy American" campaigns also engage in a different sort of provincialism when it comes to their own consumption choices. Why? Let's face it, much of the buy-local movement has nothing to do with geography. The emotional tenor, at least, is much more about shunning corporate behemoths. If the farmer next door happens to be Monsanto, you rethink buying local. What buying local really means is buying boutique-branded artisanal products that are crafted with tender loving care by actual human beings.Or that merely appear to be.
Neighborhoodlums: Benefits of Buying Local? [Fast Company]
Posted by Elizabeth Spiers at May 23, 2008 4:59 PM