Jayme Hagen
features editor
Next week the Students’ Association of MacEwan and the MacEwan Office of Sustainability will be hosting an event called Common Ground. Though it is only taking place for three days, the goal is that the message being spread will last a lot longer than that.
The idea behind the event is to create a change to a more sustainable future by celebrating the many avenues Edmonton offers for environmental responsibility.
The goal is to spread awareness on the inefficiency of transporting goods great distances and the overuse of preservatives decreasing the quality of food. Michael Kalmanovitch, owner of Earth’s General Store on Whyte Avenue, said that in order to promote positive change consumers need to start making decisions that reflect their opinions.
“You, as a consumer, have the power with your dollar and your actions, to support those systems that you wish to see in the world and if you don’t support those organizations or bodies doing work that you think is cool or that you would like to see more of, without your dollar, they won’t survive,” said Kalmanovitch.
A big reason to eat local is that most of the local produce is organic. Organic products are generally considered better for you because pesticides and preservatives are widely considered detrimental to our health, said Kalmanovitch.
Products that are grown organically are marked with a Certified Organic label. These organic products are not limited to food though. Personal hygiene products such as lotions, shampoos and hand soap are available organically made. Even things like aromatherapy products made from organic products are available at the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market.
“A lot (of) people would like to go local and organic and everything like that, but they say, ‘Oh, it’s so expensive,’” said Kalmanovitch.
But really, it shouldn’t cost more money.
“What growing locally does is minimizes the externalities of conventional food production. Meaning that, a lot of times the conventional foods are grown on very large farms or industrial sites, a lot of that is subsidized by the government, which is me, so I’m already paying for it. It’s then shipped huge distances, which is subsidized through the price of fuel.”
Another negative to this system is when buying something shipped from so far away, the standards for quality are not up to the level of a local business, said Kalmanovitch.
So, in a way, it is like any other good or service, you are paying for quality.
“Though it might be more quote-unquote expensive than the product shipped in from Arkansas, it is much more supportive and better for the environment and our society than bringing in products that have caused a lot of external damages,” said Kalmanovitch.
In a society that is striving to promote green lifestyles, it seems a glaring omission if you only buy food made in a different country. Shipping everything such great distances causes an enormous amount of fuel emissions.
There are several other benefits to buying locally-made products. It creates employment in the local community and you are able to know whom the money is going to. Another benefit of eating local is the money you spend at a local independent store will stay in the local community, instead of going towards a company based somewhere else.
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