The People in Your Neighborhood

I grew up watching Sesame Street, and many of its jingles pop up in my brain 40 years later. There was a bit about people in your neighborhood, particularly occupations: "they're the people that you meet when you're walking down the street". Things change, of course, for those of us who move from Sesame Street, with it's old world walk ups and corner groceries, to the American suburbs. Where I live, hardly anybody walks. And when we do, we probably don't meet anybody. In the off chance we do, it's not a person working - it's just another walker. Actually, the only part of the Sesame Street song that's still coming true is the verse about the garbage man. I think walking holds the key to moving back to Sesame Street.

What happens when we start to walk places - I mean, not just walk in exercise loops, but intentionally choose to leave the car at home and conduct our business within walking distance? It's been my experience that it changes the nature of business, of how I interact economically with other people. There was a discount department store where I grew up whose slogan was "the lowest price is the law". It occurs to me now that most of the time we live as if this is true: we will shop wherever we get the best deal. But I am learning to remind myself that price does not necessarily reflect cost. An inexpensive product from China costs some company and its employees here in lost revenue (which also costs me in increased welfare costs and decreased tax revenue), and costs the environment in shipping and whatever the Chinese government allows manufacturers to do that we no longer permit our own manufacturers to do. An inexpensive product from Walmart may cost my community a job that would have paid a bit more than Walmart does. An inexpensive hamburger from McDonalds may cost me in health bills down the road.

Simply put, there are costs associated with any product that our economic system either underestimates (and hence passes on to some one to pay later) or disregards completely. David Wann (he co-wrote Affluenza) in his book Simple Prosperity attempts to provide a more realistic picture of what things cost by listing the things he gained by choosing a simpler life style – and by simpler he means “making less money by working less”. By having less money to spend, he uncovered other values that weren’t reflected in dollars. It's up to each person to examine the true costs of any commodity or service, not just the price tag.

As the locavore movement has pointed out, one of the underestimated and hidden costs for food is fossil fuels - each calorie of food consumes nearly 90 calories in transportation and processing. So I've decided to get eggs, milk, vegetables, pork, beef, and chicken from local farmers. Some of it costs more than what the store will sell it to me for, but here are the things I get from buying food locally:

• the knowledge that I'm keeping a local farmer in business and tax dollars in my community
  
• a role in keeping land in agricultural production rather than grass, concrete, or asphalt
• a role in keeping agricultural skills alive in this area for people who would like to learn them
• the ability to look the producer in the eye before I put something in my body
• a connection to the earth and its creatures, its cycles, its dignity
• a desire to pay a price that supports the farmer and her business, not just the least I can get away with
  
• deeper gratitude for the food I eat, as I understand the commitment required to provide it
• a stronger network in my community, since these people know other people who I could know

Shortening the distance the product moves provides these benefits. Shortening the distance that I move can have similar benefits. When I walk to buy things or services, I strengthen my community, keep people working who will in turn keep me working, keep skills alive so that young people living here can learn them, develop an economic relationship that has social and moral overtones, and increase my gratitude for the things I have received because I understand the work that went into them.
While it's true that intentional driving in a restricted radius could have the same effect, walking is a more natural, healthy, and democratic way to accomplish the decision to buy locally.