Buying local could resolve a lot of our problems and reduce our impact on the environment.

But first what is buying local? It’s when you buy from shops that are owned by people who live in this zone selling products that are produced in the province. So shop like Urban Planet and Forever 21 are not considered local shop even if they are in your area because the owner of these company doesn’t live in Quebec. Local shops would be more like ”Le Panier Bleu” which is an online site where you can buy all sorts of stuff such as clothes and furniture that were made all around Quebec. You could also consider Amimoc which sells shoes completely made by artisans, or Article 721 which designs jewellery.

In addition to this, the items that these companies sell are not made in Quebec but most of the time in developing countries where workers earn less. For example countries like the Philippines or Egypt are considered among the 10 worst countries for working conditions. They also use cheaper materials.

Now let’s get to the point. Did you know that if we all started buying local it would help our economy? We wouldn’t have to import products so the items we buy would cost less money and by learning to be more autonomous in our production we get smarter and even happier because we are proud of our community. By buying locally you help your community to thrive and get stronger and healthier. Also, it creates work for people in your community.

Furthermore, food would taste better for example strawberries made on the farm next to your house are gonna be way tastier and fresher than strawberries who had been in a container for months. The food would even be safer because we could make sure no pesticides were used on it.

Even better is that buying local is a really good thing for the environment because if we stop importing things it would help decrease greenhouse emissions. For example, maritime transport is one of the biggest problems for the environment because they commonly use HFO which is heavy fuel oil because they cost less money than other fuels. HFO is the result or remnant from the distillation and cracking process of petroleum. Which makes its consequence on earth worst than any other fuel. So if we’d start buying locally the earth would be in better shape.

Of course, the items made locally are more expensive but they are worth it for all the reasons mentioned earlier in the text you.