Reply #33: Reply [View All]

As for the sustainabilities bill, I would give it a :thumbsup:. Apparently, over in the UK you have not yet experienced the complete degradation of "Main Street" in favor of corporate conglomerates that we have experienced in the USA. Stop it before it gets as bad as us.

Personally, I try to purchase from local merchants whenever possible -- because I know that my money will be re-invested in the community rather than shipped off to some corporate headquarters thousands of miles away.

As for the subsidy issue, what we're talking about here isn't really the same as cotton. What we're talking about is FOOD, and sustainability. It is obvious to anyone who has spent a good deal of time in the rural US that local, independent farmers are some of the best stewards of the land around. And when it comes to the difference between locally-grown organic produce and mass-produced supermarket produce, there is NO comparison. Local organic is healthier and much tastier, while mass-produced is often nice to look at but sprayed with pesticides and has the flavor of cardboard.

While I definitely support the end of subsidies, I also think that food production agricultural issues need to be looked at in terms of sustainability, not simply for the bottom line. I find it absurd that all the pollution should be created to ship a crop from, say, the United States to Chile (or vice-versa), when Chile is perfectly able to grow that crop at home.