One of the most important things for me is buying local. There are all kinds of reasons to buy things that are made or produced close to home.

Some reasons for buying local are economic- buying local helps the local economy. Buying local keeps and creates new local jobs (maybe I’d get one!) and keeps your hard earned money close to home- rather than sending it to Dallas, New Jersey or…. China? I’d rather buy a jar of pickle made in the Dalles rather than in India, and I’d rather buy a kitchen whisk made in industrial Northwest Portland than in China. I’d even spend a little extra money!

One problem with buying local is that in order to find things made as close to home as possible, you have to work really, really hard- and use a lot of gas! I’d like to shop someplace that made it easy for me by focusing- at least in part- on selling locally made goods.

Should that be the number one priority in a cooperative grocery? Maybe, but maybe not. There are other factors that are important too. Cooperatives are known for usually selling organics. They sell “natural” products. The best organics and natural products aren’t always made close to home. Is an organic peach grown in georgia better than a non-organic peach grown just down the street? I think probably. Where are the closest organic peaches grown? What about Mary Hill white peaches? I don’t think they’re organic- but they’re the best white peaches I’ve ever had! How do you prioritize?

Then what about cost? Organics are almost always more expensive. Locally produced goods should, one would think at least, be more affordable- they don’t take as much petrol to get from the tree to the table! It doesn’t always work that way though. Manufactured goods made just blocks away by people earning a living wage usually cost more than sweatshop produced goods in the third world. How can we prioritize cost? We want to be affordable!!

Other factors? Packaging maybe? One of my pet peeves is when you buy a product in a package that you have to send to a landfill. Sometimes there’s more packaging than product!!

Buying local. Buying organic. Providing affordable products with less packaging. It’s all important- so how do you chose a product to sell in the coop? Oh, and I almost forgot- QUALITY!!

One thing that makes the choices a little easier is that we can sell more than one of most items. We can sell one that is produced locally- but maybe isn’t organic and we can sell one that is organic, or is cheaper, or is better- or whatever! We should be conscious though of creating more of a choice with each combination of items that we sell. An example might be yellow mustard. We have a locally produced mustard called “American Picnic Mustard” made by Beaverton Foods- and it’s really pretty good! There is also an organic mustard that is actually pretty affordable that is made by “Natural Value.” It’s also pretty good! Both are quality products, we’d have a local product, an organic and affordable product, and both are of good quality.

Even choosing two- even three- products to sell won’t be necessarily easy. Perhaps we should have a rating scale for each product. In terms of “localness,” a product made in the Portland Area would rate higher than a product make in Eugene which would rate higher than a product made in Denver- which would rate much higher than a product produced in China! In terms of affordability, you could simply compare what you have available to you. The average cost of a jar of pickles is X. Some products are more than X, some are less. Quality is hard to rate- everyone has an opinion! We can do tastings for products- and maybe advertise that to draw people into the store! Make events out of it! “Come into the store on Saturday and sample 14 brands of dill pickles!” There are even… degrees? of organicness! It isn’t organic, it’s “transitional,” its certified, and whatever!!

In any case, an affordable, quality, organic AND locally produced product should obviously be our first choice. A product made in Portland or near by should be a priority. As well. The farther away it’s produced, the more we should consider alternatives or second choices that take other factors into account.

Any thoughts?!!

Cheers to all of you!

Jeff