Brilliant and perfectly said! As a small-scale farmer and baker, local is my livelihood. But I also have limits (financial, time, attention) and so I prioritize. I live in a country that produces everything but coffee (although with climate change I think we could grow that too) and so sometimes "local" is simply from my province or my country. And that is ok. Thank you for writing this.
I agree with all of this. I love buying local but I struggle with it, whilst I generally have time on my side I don't have transport and living in the Devon countryside that limits my options, but my partner drives past a big chain supermarket on his way home from work everyday... We need to think about these things and improve on them but can't use them as a stick to beat ourselves with. X
That tension between values and reality is exactly what I was trying to get at. Access, transport, time, geography — they all shape what’s possible, and pretending otherwise just turns “local” into a source of guilt, which is the opposite of what it should be! Thinking about these systems matters, but it can’t become a moral stick. It has to start from honesty and kindness, or it’s not useful at all. Thank you for your comment Pippa x
👏 Steph
Brilliant and perfectly said! As a small-scale farmer and baker, local is my livelihood. But I also have limits (financial, time, attention) and so I prioritize. I live in a country that produces everything but coffee (although with climate change I think we could grow that too) and so sometimes "local" is simply from my province or my country. And that is ok. Thank you for writing this.
Absolutely...
I agree with all of this. I love buying local but I struggle with it, whilst I generally have time on my side I don't have transport and living in the Devon countryside that limits my options, but my partner drives past a big chain supermarket on his way home from work everyday... We need to think about these things and improve on them but can't use them as a stick to beat ourselves with. X
That tension between values and reality is exactly what I was trying to get at. Access, transport, time, geography — they all shape what’s possible, and pretending otherwise just turns “local” into a source of guilt, which is the opposite of what it should be! Thinking about these systems matters, but it can’t become a moral stick. It has to start from honesty and kindness, or it’s not useful at all. Thank you for your comment Pippa x