The Smackdown: Global vs. Local

Recently, in another class of mine, my professor mentioned the trend of globalization, which set me off on an interesting train of thought. Amidst the professor's babel about different ecologies (a word that turns up in every lecture), he actually hit on something I paid attention to! Amazing, right? As a side note, I promise I am a good student.

But back to my thought. With the current stage of environmentalism in our society, everything local is loved. Local foods, local businesses, etc ... "Going local" makes for a more sustainable life, right? If you aren't buying products from thousands of miles away, then those miles won't give you a black check on your sustainability record. It makes sense to me!  When my professor mentioned globalization, however, two different and separate ideas in my mind collided and did not agree with one another. See, all along I have been thinking that local products are better than non-local, yet at the same time I talked about the "globalization" of our economy as a good thing. These two ideas do not coincide. Don't ask me how I managed to get this far without realizing this -- my mind confuses even me.

How do I reconcile this? Globalization in our society can't really be avoided - especially with the Internet. Heck, I had a view on this blog from Singapore! I don't know anyone there, but someone found me and now my ideas are being shared with that person. (Welcome, Singapore reader!)

It isn't only ideas being shared globally. It's also products, of course. My clothes come from Taiwan, my coffee comes from Columbia, my oranges come from Florida, my dairy from the happy cows in California and my MacBook Pro was made in China. I live in a global community. Going off on a little bit of a tangent here, I heard another professor say he depended on his local community while he was growing up. Nearly everything he needed came from the people around him -- he depended on his neighbors. This is no longer true. My community of neighbors is global. I probably won't buy my textbooks from local bookstores, because it is cheaper for me to order them used online. A lot of the times, I order from Europe because they are cheaper yet. If I have a question about electronics, I probably won't go to a shop in downtown East Lansing. I'll do a search online for my information.


The exchange of ideas doesn't really have an impact on how sustainable my life is, but the exchange of products on a global scale does. If my clothes were made in Taiwan, they had to travel all the way to the United State for me to wear them. As another example, I just found some paper of my roommate's. The pack of printer paper was processed and/or packaged (it isn't clear which) in Atlanta, Georgia. However, the wire-bound notebook was made in Vietnam and the filler paper pack from Meijer was made in Thailand. I can honestly say I had no idea paper traveled that far. This paper was made from trees in Thailand (presumably)? I am using items from around the globe and those travel miles are racking up.

With all that said, I can see the flip side. It is more efficient to produce one thing you're good at making and share it with others who reciprocate the process, rather than trying to make everything you need yourself. So, Colombians make coffee and ship it to my local coffee shop, instead of Grand River Coffee harvesting their own beans. The only problem with this scenario is one society is only just starting to realize. We didn't factor in environmental costs involved in transportation. These costs are slower to show their effects, but their effects are pretty huge. The oceans and the atmosphere are suffering from boats, planes and cars zipping all over the planet with our goods.

Of course, I don't have a solution. I'm just good at pointing out the problem! Seriously, though, I think it would ridiculously hard (read: impossible) to back track with globalization. The internet is here and it is not leaving. But I also don't think focusing on the local products is bad. Local businesses need support too! There needs to be a balance, of course. As far as those pesky transportation costs, lets hope we can find a cleaner way to share our goods.

As for me, I am going to be more conscious of the distances my purchases travel. While I can't cut out products from overseas completely, I will buy what I can at a local level. It is the best compromise I can come up with for me. I will also try to find ways  to give back that will make up for all those miles my favorite shoes traveled to reach me!