Buying Local Backlash

The Christian Science Monitor presents a fairly balanced view of the pros and cons of the Buy Local movement in its article "Is Buying Local Always Best". And while I agree that we need a more nuanced view of the situation (globalism vs. localism), I still think most of the arguments against it sound like corporate fears, rather than real human concern. Here are a couple of them...

A local focus can breed an unhealthy provincialism and lead to practices that harm both the environment and the poor in developing nations, according to John Clark, a social development specialist for East Asia at the World Bank and author of "Worlds Apart: Civil Society and the Battle for Ethical Globalization."

For example, he notes, an estimated 50,000 Bangladeshi children lost precious garment industry jobs as a result of a 1996 boycott by Western shoppers who sought other sources for clothing. An ethic of buying local, he says, runs the risk of multiplying similar, albeit unintended, consequences overseas. "What are sweatshops to us may be a dream job there" in Bangladesh, Mr. Clark says. "But all that goes out the window if we only buy local.... I think we need more sophistication than just, 'buy local.' "

AND

Among those concerned is Roy Jacobowitz, senior vice president for development and communications at Acción International, a Boston-based nonprofit lender to micro-entrepreneurs in developing nations.

"The 'buy locally' argument is an isolationist argument, which I think is a dangerous one," Mr. Jacobowitz says. The danger, he says, comes in shutting the door to the reality: "Poor entrepreneurs in the emerging world need the opportunity to sell into markets that can pay fair prices for their goods." But if American consumers insist on buying local, he says, dreamers in the developing world will never reach their goals.

What do you think?
Read the entire article here.