this question is something i've been thinking a lot about for the past two years.
i was confronted by two people about the feasibility and importance of buying local products, not only food and other resource based goods, but all consumer goods. i was shocked by the sense of entitlement from both. both voiced the opinion that it didn't really matter what happened in other countries during production as long as they were given availability of whatever their hearts might desire here in our markets.
as my focus increasingly turns to food security issues i am struck by how much the canadian grocery stores rely on imported food. currently at my store, which is a speciality food store serving mainly chefs so i recognize our bias based on a demand for exotic produce, and given that it is early april in ottawa we have local apples, carrots, hot peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, maple syrup, and seed sprouts. 95 percent of what customers come in looking for is produced at this time of year in two main regions: south america and california.
the quality and quantity of food available to canadians in astounding. more so in january, february and march. and yet customers become indignant and self righteous if raspberries aren't available or they have to pay $8.80 per kilo of chilean green grapes. given the costs of fuel i bite my tongue daily when questioned about prices. quite frankly i am sure the situation is so bad in chilean vineyards that i don't want to know the details (be sure however i'm not buying). and that doesn't even address the historical processes behind pinochet's conversion of campesino small-holdings into industrial plantations for fruit.
more recently, when last summer's toy recalls became almost a national crisis for parents in canada i was very disappointed by the lack of personal responsibility on the part of anyone i spoke with (having a four year old and so being part of the world of parenting i had many discussions about toy safety). the toys sold in canada are cheap because we demand for them to be so. parents are generally unwilling to invest in one or two quality toys (all from europe because canada has no toy manufacturing left) because of price, but will spend a comparable amount on imported garbage. never once in all the media reports i read and heard did one person raise the point that generally canadians are willing to remain ignorant of manufacturing conditions abroad as long as they can continue to buy. although racism, classism and sexism raises their ugly heads when it is canadian children who have been given unsafe toys by their parents.
our society is based on a system in which we must have human slave labour, whether it be domestically or internationally. and for the majority of consumers who don't really seem to want to think about their consumer choices the labouring poor are invisible.
as to canadian women as consumers in canada, i suppose there could be an expectation that they would feel a sense of solidarity with the primarily female workforce producing the cheap goods we buy. however as western liberal feminism (which i feel is still the status quo feminism in canada) seems to have failed in every other regard when in comes to recognizing and addressing their own internalized privilege, i can't imagine that fair trade will be implemented on a grand scale anywhere.
as discussion of olympic boycott is mentioned daily now in the media, i wonder how much of western hysteria regarding china (which in my store amounts to a refusal to buy chinese garlic) is ultimately a demonstration of the shallowness western liberal thought. a drop of protest is shown when active violence reaches our media. however, not one discussion reaches a deeper investigation of society and self to see that much of what westerners expect, and feel entitled to receive, is a product of our system of production based on what i have lately decided is a culture of hatred and violence. the reality manifesting as constant low-level violence for women, indigenous people and the poor.
