Sustainable Means Buying More Than Local Food

Please read Peter Applebome's A Bookstore Closes in Chappaqua, and a Town Is Poorer for It in yesterday's New York Times.

He talks about independent bookstores being forced to close; but he could be talking about any local business. Sustainability is more about buying local (period) and not just buying locally-grown food.

His concluding paragraphs are worth reading again and taking to heart:

"Way down on the decibel scale is a buy-local movement struggling to be heard. On the Internet, in small business groups, even from groups focused on local bookstores (http://www.indiebound.org/) its message is that if people want local stores, a downtown that’s vital, they should shop there, even if they can get the Tylenol cheaper at Target and the John Grisham book cheaper at Amazon.

Nothing is forever, certainly not an independent bookstore. A lot of things killed our bookstore, including the terrible economy and the incessant information overload that makes reading a book like a quaint rite from the past. But if we lost it out of indifference, or to save a buck or two on Amazon, we lost a lot more than we saved."

Speaking about locally grown, we should all be inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama and Chef Sam Kass. The new organic garden at the White House is the way to lead by example.

It is time that more community gardens begin to sprout in the Frontera. Churches can do them; and Las Cruces is showing how to take the "edge off bills".