Journal Entry 8: Buying Locally

            Food sovereignty was an important theme during our class camping trip. We had a group discussion about what food sovereignty was and talked about what issues food sovereignty breaks down into. How does it affect us?
I  thought about where I buy my groceries and the types of food I buy. I always go to a grocery store like Safeway or Extrafoods. I heard about farmer’s market downtown and I’ve always wondered if the market would be similar to the markets I saw in Guatemala, C.A. There would be women sitting in lines on either side of a long street with weight scales sitting beside them. The men would not be there because they were either still farming or on the road bringing crates of fruit and vegetables into the city. The women would continue sitting from 6:30am-8:00pm. There would be mountains of vegetables and garbage all throughout the street. Would the famer’s market be like this downtown Regina? I want to see this for myself one weekend soon.

            If I start buying locally, how will this affect my lifestyle, health, and the organizations I am buying from? We found out that the Green Ranch sells their vegetables to local restaurants in Regina. Now that I have helped garden at the Green Ranch, and my peers had the opportunity to meet the two that manage the farm, does this make me want to help support them? Yes it does, I know where the food is coming from, I have an idea of the long hours both farmers put in each week, and they are normal people like you and I trying to make a living. Who is behind big grocery chains like Safeway, or Extrafoods? Who is benefiting when I buy from those stores? Does this help or hinder farms like the Green Ranch?
            If I go to the Farmer’s Market, I will help support local farms like the Green Ranch. Buying locally does benefits my family and I because the food we are eating is not coming from a 1,000,000 miles away, filled with pesticides and herbicides. If I buy locally I help support the local farms so they can make enough profit to continue farming and growing organic food.
            I wonder what our society would be like if it was government mandatory to only shop locally. How would our society around Regina (including nearby rural areas), change? If shopping locally is a good thing, what is local? Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, or North America?