If Canadians really want to buy local, as Jodi DeLong suggests (“What is the Future for Farmers,” July/August), why do the number of farms continue to decline? The answer has less to do with the absence of options than with our desire to provide marketers with politically correct answers, over what we are likely to actually do. 

We are the same folks who bemoan the demise of the downtown core and the privately owned bookstores and hardware stores, while guiltily patronizing the industrial park box stores. Given a choice between what is best for the collective good and what is cheap and convenient, we will take the easy route every time.

As the current oil crisis shows, all the warnings in the world about global warming and geopolitical strife did little to change our behaviour. Despite endorsing “world day” type feel-good gestures for some time, it was not until we personally felt the pain of skyrocketing energy prices that we are finally heeding a clarion call to action.

Similarly, I fear we need to personally feel the negative consequences of having preservative-laden food shipped halfway around the world before we move beyond the feel-good gesture of the occasional weekend visit to a local farmers’ market.

Come on people, why not just do the right thing?

Blair Graham
Dartmouth, NS