What’s all the Fuss about Buying Local and In-Season?

What’s all the Fuss about Buying Local and In-Season?

I suppose at the end-consumer level this is some advice which becoming scarcer and scarcer, that being how it’s in your best interests to buy local and in-season, of course. You’re more likely to hear it from someone like your grandmother or grandfather, if you do hear it at all, of course. Otherwise these are some practices which are sold as some value, by retailers or service providers who expressly point out that they use locally-sourced materials or supplies to bring you the product or service you’re buying, or that they use ingredients which are in-season, in the case of the food services industry.

But what’s all the fuss about it though? Why should you as a consumer even care about whether or not the products and services you use in your life are sourced locally and are in-season, as far as is within reason, of course?

Quality and value in freshness

If you’re used to cooking veggies which have come from far and wide, perhaps frozen in order to preserve them, your first taste of some of the freshest vegetables straight from yours or someone else’s backyard will have you wondering just how much nutritional value is contained in the quick-frozen food you usually consume. There is quality and a whole lot of value too in freshness, but this can be applied beyond consumable goods such as food. Someone who renders a service to you, whom you know as your hometown neighbour for example, will make sure you always get the best service, simply because of the close proximity.

Favourable pricing

As far as pricing goes, it’s all about where it is that you find yourself when seeking to purchase some product or service. If in your home town there’s a range of freshly grown produce which is naturally produced in that area, it’s all available invariably cheaper to everybody in and around the area, is it not? The reason should be obvious, but in case it isn’t, it’s just a matter of the produce not having to travel too far to get to the end-user or consumer and so there are no additional costs on final price, such as integrated costs of transportation, preservation, etc.

Radial economic value

This perhaps brings back the quality and value discussion point, that being radial economic value which results from a focus on buying local and in-season. In action this would entail a look at the economic relationship between something like a personal injury attorney Los Angeles residents make use of the services of and the regional market in the legal industry.

Why do they patronise a legal professional of this nature who is effectively a local? It’s because they understand the value to be obtained from someone who knows the local market. This value also assumes an economic nature, in that it creates a local industry that is collectively very valuable and this goes beyond the legal industry. I was just using the legal industry as an example to drive the point home.

Radial economic value develops around some kind of speciality a specific region becomes renowned for.