Buy local?? Isn’t that like mercantilism? Haven’t you nutters ever heard of comparative advantage? Frankly, nobody’s ever asked us that, but the rationale for buying local can make for a good dig. And the bone worth digging for contends that there are good reasons for local purchasing, particularly of raw goods, that anyone but the most devout worshippers of price can respect.

Saying “the rationale” is already a feint, since reasons abound from all over of the political spectrum, especially the extremes. NAFTA made pillow partners of Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader, and many of the same sentiments have hippies and ultraconservatives dancing around the same buy-local may cross. Is “buy local” just a happier, less riot-to-mind-calling way to say “anti-globalization?” Well, no not just.

For one thing, the local idea scales down past international trade. Promoters of local food bemoan the prevalence of California crops on the east coast of the United States as loudly as they do Central American fruit in Europe. Some local vocals insist that geographical distance out-trumps border-crossings. For another, many “buy local” promoters don’t want to outlaw international trade, they just want to go further towards making price more representative of “real cost,” and to establish buying local as a shortcut to reducing some of the impacts price tags overlook.

That’s where bowing to the doctrine that the “Price is Right” fails us. Many social and environmental costs don’t get weighed into price, and thus don’t get weighed by any of us who are relying mainly on price to make our decisions. I don’t know how to mention that economists call these costs “externalities” without sacrificing sex appeal, but a big part of the equation is fossil fuel. Transporting building materials and (often refrigerated) food adds a lot of “invisible brown” cost that large food producers make up for by way of efficient distribution, marketing, and business networks. Nobody’s knocking efficiency here, but it’s always worth figuring out why cheap things are cheap and why expensive things aren’t always expensive.

But buying local has a lot more than guilt-tripping going for it. It’s always nice to have more political voice over companies that are shaping the world around you, for example, and by buying local, your voice increases, because the companies are in more of your jurisdictions. And freshness tends to be on local’s side, so there’s often a quality argument. Not to mention old-fashioned neighborliness.

Now if we try to restrict our microchip purchases to neighboring counties, most of us are up … some local creek. But that’s the thing: comparative advantage still holds, even in the face of invisible brownie points — it’s not new math, there are just new numbers. Sometimes it’s going to be better for everyone if you buy “made in China;” very often not. Grass Commons’ work is aimed at having better stabs at those numbers conveniently available to us. Without them, nobody can really do all the math, so buying local, especially when the products don’t cost much per pound, is about the best workaround.

Read about our efforts to distribute a Nearbuy wallet card.