Why are most Americans living in such a manner that we don't buy locally grown food.?

Question

Yeah its working for us right now but realistically it wont last.

Answer 1

I purchase locally grown food in the summer when our Farmer's Market opens in town.

But can you purchase bananas or oranges there in the winter months? No, you need to get this at the grocery store.  The grocer gets his supplies from the least expensive place, and unfortunately this might be a foreign country.  

What bothers me about foreign grown fruit or veggies is that we don't know how it is grown and what kind of pesticides have been used to kill off insects.

An American exchange student spent a few months in Costa Rica and told me that the farmers there are using an over abundance of insect sprays because the cannot read, nor translate the English written info on the containers.  She was warned not to purchase any fruits or veggies outside her American School Garden because it was not safe.  During her stay in that country she learned that there is high rate of cancer  because of the insect sprays on all food crops and the population is not aware of that.

Answer 2

Realistically wont Last?? Well, then I guess the alternative is that we starve??  Not likely my friend....

If you have ever worked in the agricultural community, you would quickly realize that the scale of production required could never be handled locally, and no hydroponic implementation could be feasible even if current prices were double what they are today.  

As people continue to dream about everything being "organic", "natural", and "grass fed beef"...The agricultural community who grows all of this realizes the obvious...  When you need 100 tons of fresh produce weekly just to supply one small city, no local grown farmer could imagine the logistics required to fulfill these orders...

In short.. The current agricultural community is not bent on giving you anything other than what consumers want.  If they want local foods, and will pay 7 times their current cost, we can provide them... Otherwise, we will pick the most cost effective process we know how...

Answer 3

I believe most of us buy locally grown food because for one, the price factor. Its cheaper to buy food from different countries. Another reason is probably because its easier to get food from other countries. Most people go to jewel, dominicks, or some other big grocery chain rather than going to a family owned store that sells locally grown food. The small family business are getting crushed by huge corporations  that sell food for cheap unlike family businesses that sell their food for more.