Just Buy Local – or Not
So many recalled foods and other consumables lately! And every time the subject comes up on social media, some people start yelling, “Just buy local!”. This post is about the problems surrounding recalls, and goes into the reasons that buying local is not an option for most people.
The USDA, FDA, CDC and various other government organizations have a variety of departments and methods to keep our food safe and slow the spread of diseases that could potentially cause pandemics. Keep in mind there is a certain amount of overlap between food safety and disease spread.
These agencies came about in the first place because of contaminated foods causing wide spread disease outbreaks, underhanded practices like watering down milk and adding chalk to restore the color, manipulating scales to make them weigh heavier, and so on and so on. I’ll be doing a separate post about that. It’s horrifying what all went on to dupe and sicken the public.
Some of the modern duties of these agencies in the field include:
UNITED STATES
Inspect factories and food processing/production facilities
- Make sure the buildings and equipment are clean
- Make sure workers are following the rules for sanitary handling of the food
- Randomly test the foods for contamination
Monitor retail outlets
- Undercover inspectors go into grocery stores and buy a random variety of foods across several categories. They take it back to the lab and analyze it to make sure that (1) it doesn’t contain contaminants or banned substances (2) the ingredients match the label, and (3) the weight matches the label.
IMPORTED FOODS
Inspect foods incoming via ship, plane and delivery truck
- Make sure containers and crates are clean
- In the case of refrigerated/frozen foods, make sure they are at the correct temperature and show no signs of having experienced warming along the way
- Randomly test food samples for contamination and banned substances
- Inspect the places of origin
- US inspectors regularly fly to countries that we import food from to monitor farms producing the food to make sure they have clean practices.
- They also inspect the factories and food processing/production facilities to make sure they are clean and have sanitary practices.
The Trump administration fired thousands of federal employees across multiple agencies that perform these functions, and imposed hiring freezes for these positions.
You can see the list I got together of dozens of current recalls. I wonder how many contaminated foods haven’t been detected yet due to the severe shortage of inspectors and investigators? People are dying.
JUST BUY LOCAL!
More power to those who can. I sure wish I could. I know there are plenty who wish they could, but it’s just not possible for most. There are reasons.
- There are approximately 60 Metro areas in the United States with a population exceeding one million people. Do you really think ALL of these people can buy local? A small farmstand that gets 50-100 customers a week can’t handle a few hundred thousand visitors.
- Few people in the inner city can buy local. The more poor they are, the more likely they (1) Have no transportation, (2) Have no cooking facilities, (3) Have no refrigerator, (4) Are disabled or elderly with mobility issues, making it difficult to cook [See a real life example HERE], (5) Are unable to afford the high prices of local sources
- People depending on WIC and Food Stamps are confined to shopping at the grocery store.
- The climate and soil in many areas of the country is unsuitable for most crops, so the available selection will be meager and seasonal.
I know in some parts of the country, many different fruits and vegetables can be grown, and prices are probably low where there is an abundance. But in many areas, such as where I live, “Buying Local” is for the privileged few.
I live in the Rolling Plains. The climate is dry, water is not abundant, and the soil is not the best quality. The primary crops are cotton, winter wheat, and grazing cattle.
Some of the lower-lying areas are suitable for growing some vegetables and fruits. Squash, melons, cucumbers and peaches do well. A scattering of other edibles are grown: green beans, strawberries, tomatoes, a few others, but not in large quantities. Farm stands are busy in season, but prices are much higher than the grocery stores!
Wichita Falls has a Farmer’s market, and many vendors do sell home grown produce, home baked goods, homemade soaps, home canned condiments, and various other odds and ends. But, to provide a good variety of produce, many vendors buy from wholesalers in Oklahoma and Ft. Worth and bring it back here, and who knows where it was grown. Much of it probably comes from Mexico and points even further south. I can guarantee the tropical fruits, like pineapples and bananas, weren’t grown any where around here. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a Farmer’s Market? And the prices on everything is exorbitant! Most people can’t afford to shop there!
Some of the local stands have some of their prices on some items posted online, so I gathered together the current prices that I could find and listed them below. Who can afford that?
I couldn’t find produce prices, but sometimes they’re posted in the local groups, and they’re twice as high as Walmart.
Some ranchers will sell beef, but few people can buy a half or whole beef.
| LOCAL PRICES | CHEAPEST WALMART ALTERNATIVES Walmart store brands unless otherwise stated |
| Milk – $8 for 1/2 gallon / $16 a gallon | $1.84 for 1/2 gallon or $3.02 gallon |
| Sour Dough Bread – $8-$9/loaf | $1.48 20oz white or $2.97 24oz sourdough |
| Jellies and Jams – 8oz $10 | Jellies $1.98 – $2.48 for 18oz Preserves $2.66 – $3.97 for 18oz |
| Cranberry (Sauce or Compote) – 8oz $8.00 | Jellied sauce or whole berry sauce $1.66 for 14oz |
| Eggs – $6/doz | Dozen large for $1.67 |
| Whole Chicken – $6/lb | Tyson whole chicken $1.46/lb Tyson chicken thighs $1.77/lb, but periodic sales under $1/lb Rotisserie Chicken, 36oz, Chilled, works out to $1.32/lb |
| Whole Turkey – $6/lb (10-15lbs) | Jenni-O – $2.97/lb, but various brands go on sale much cheaper in the fall. |
| Italian Sausage – $18/lb | Ground Italian Pork Sausage – $3.92/lb Festive Ground Italian-style Turkey Sausage – $1.98/lb |
| German Sausage – $18/lb | Bratwurst links – $2.50/lb |
| Breakfast Sausage – $12/lb | Farmland Original Pork Breakfast Sausage Roll – $2.87/lb |
| Pork (Ground) – $10/lb | Tyson Ground Pork – $2.67/lb |
| Pork (Roast, Tenderloin, Spare Ribs) – $10/lb | Tyson – $1.97 – $3.97/lb |
| Bacon – $12/lb | $3.96/lb for the cheapest varieties |
| Ham – $12/lb | Spiral Cut Brown Sugar Double Glazed Ham – $2.48/lb |
| Fresh Milled Whole Wheat Flour – 18oz $5.00 | Great Value Whole Wheat Flour – 5 lb, $2.96 All-Purpose Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour – 5 lb, $2.34 |
| Vanilla Extract, 5oz – $10 | Molina Mexican Vanilla Blend, 8.3oz – $1.84 |
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3 Comments
Elizabeth
I agree. I can buy local because I am in a rural area, I have even been in a farm program where I got fresh vegetables, meat, and eggs every other week. While I enjoyed it, I knew my money was going to help a local farmer, it was rather expensive and there definitely were some vegetables or meats we did not enjoy or did not eat.
When someone is on a very tight budget, unfortunately, grocery stores with the lowest prices are where people shop. As you mentioned, not everyone has refrigeration, not everyone has means to be able to cook food, not everyone has transportation.
And shame on this administration for just getting rid of people who make sure the food we buy is safe.
Renee Owens
I completely agree with you. “Just buy local” sounds wonderful until you actually look at what that means for the average person. Local food can be a great option for people who have the money, transportation, storage, cooking facilities, and access to enough local producers to meet their needs—but those things are not evenly distributed.
And your farmer’s market example really illustrates the problem. If vendors have to supplement their selection with wholesale produce from outside the area, then simply shopping at a farmer’s market doesn’t necessarily mean you’re buying locally grown food. Meanwhile, the price difference can put it completely out of reach for families already struggling to afford groceries.
There’s also an important distinction between supporting local producers when you can and pretending that local purchasing can replace the entire food distribution system. It can’t. Millions of people depend on large-scale agriculture, transportation, processing, refrigeration, grocery stores, and federal food-safety oversight. Those systems have serious problems, but “just buy local” doesn’t solve them—and it certainly isn’t a realistic solution for people living in food deserts, relying on SNAP or WIC, living with disabilities, or simply trying to feed a family on a limited budget.
I absolutely support buying local when it is genuinely accessible. But turning it into a moral obligation ignores the economic and geographic realities that you’ve laid out here. Sometimes Walmart really is the only place a person can afford to buy dinner.
Jason Owens
My issue is , yes if you buy local the prices might be higher too in the long run due to prices going up all over the country.
I would like to hear abou the agencies contaminating thing though.