Supporting your local & locale - Issue #65

So surprised to see you raising this topic.

I generally agree with your position. Supporting local anything should come secondary to quality; otherwise we're dumbing down our expectations and standards in some vague quest to help the "little guy." After all, everything is local somewhere.

Between two equal (or even roughly equivalent) products—especially beers or produce or anything somewhat perishable—I'll usually choose the one that requires less fuel and time to reach my local market—meaning the local one. But as we all know, with beer it's mathematically impossible for all or even most of the best beers to be made locally. Even in a market like Washington/Oregon that's satured with great breweries, there are still a lot more breweries that aren't local. And there are almost always better beers of a given style being brewed elsewhere. So take the best of what's made locally and be proud of it, but don't be ashamed to seek excellence even if it comes from far away.

 

I've never bought into the choosing local for the sake of it being local. I want the best goods and service for my money, if I have to go elsewhere for it...I will.

 

It is interesting how trade without borders, free trade, isolationism, xenophobia, open borders, etc. . . is supported/criticized by many of the same ilk who are all about "being local" above and beyond everything else.

 

Well, I try to avoid buying products that were made in sweatshops or through child labor, or that have a proven harmful impact on the environment (that last one's a tough one). I'm not sure beer falls into any of those categories though. I'm guessing a lot of our hops might be harvested by undocumented workers, but that's just idle speculation based on what I know of agriculture in the Yakima Valley.

 

My take is that you should expect more from your local breweries. If they are representing your home town you should demand excellence from them. If a local is on tap, I'll usually pick it over a comparable offering. However, there are some local brews I've given a try and will not be revisiting unless they make some changes and I hear about it.

It's like being the coach when your kid's on the team. They should actually have it harder than all the other kids and be expected to do better.

 

I'm torn on sweatshops, I mean, if there were better employment options, I'm sure they'd take 'em, so I kind of put that in the unfortunate, but better than nothing/the alternative category. . . but can fully understand why someone would attempt to not support a business that falls under the sweatshop category.

Child labor. . .eh, I had a newspaper route when I was 12. If we're talking dangerous work, sure, but if a kid wants a paper route, that shouldn't be illegal or draw my scorn.

A lot of our (anything) is harvested by illegal aliens/undocumented workers, not just hops. And I'm totally cool with that. Artichokes are expensive, I could only imagine how much they would cost if artichoke pickers had a mobbed up union, tenure, health care (er, wait a minute) etc. . .

Regardless, I'm just saying I've come across a few people who support some incompatible, hypocritical things in this regard, ironically, bringing the 'think globally, act locally' thing into quite the predicament.

 

Yeah, this is a tough one because really, we have no idea under what conditions most of the stuff we buy is made. It's a goal I support when I can, given the limited information we ever have. Hell, I've read awful stuff about the factories where iPads and iPhones are made, and those factories are supposed to be better than most. Who knows though, given the pretty distorted information we seem to get from the media much of the time?

I'm not talking about a paper route. I'm talking about kids in Pakistan or China or wherever who work in factories for 14 hours a day (instead of going to school) for the equivalent of what you and I made while I just typed this sentence. And then we're shocked that they end up in madrasas (which feed and clothe them for free), learning to hate America...

This is undeniably true. But again, isn't it hypocritical to demand the deportation of all illegal immigrants but then complain that the price of a head of lettuce or tomatoes goes up at Wal-Mart? Still trying to wrap my head around how people don't (or refuse to) see both sides of that coin.

Certainly true, but I think valid points can be made in both directions.

We're obviously way off topic here so I'll just close by saying I hope our beer continues to be made in countries that have environmental, health, and safety standards. I'm willing to pay more for that. I do not want lead or PCBs in my IPAs...

 

Well now we've delved far enough into this to have a disagreement:

Its a global economy (imports/exports happen all over the world, not just the U.S.), I don't understand why they'd hate America when its their own lack of legal/human rights structure that permits them to be 'abused'. Our worker protection rules and laws have no applicability/jurisdiction in Asia. But its easier to blame the biggest consumer in a tenuous indirect causation position than you know, your own people subjugating you.

That's like blaming beeradvocates in CA (Trader Joe's) for kennubunkport's shitty ipa instead of the brewery.

 

Gonna take this discussion offline now, if you don't mind. We're pretty far off topic so a private discussion is probably more appropriate @ this point. Cheers!

 

Most of my local breweries produce mediocre beers IMO. Even though I'd love to support them I choose not to for this reason. I have always believed that quality comes before everything and will continue to believe so.