Vote with your wallet in support of local business, farms

I hope you are among those inspired by massive voter turnout, regardless of whether your guy won, more than three weeks ago.

But in reality, we cast votes every day of our lives. Every time you spend a dollar, you're casting a vote in a variety of ways. What you buy and where you buy it can cause positive or negative ripple effects.

As another Thanksgiving Day moves into "Black Friday," one of the biggest shopping days of the year, I hope you will join me in pausing and really thinking about how you'll cast your votes this holiday season.

Now more than ever, we need to be thinking about our community and our neighbors — casting our votes for US by buying locally produced products, frequenting locally owned stores and restaurants, and supporting local farmers. That may sound like an us-against-them, circle-the-wagons approach to economics, but if every community did the same, we'd all be better off. Shopping locally is partly about investing in your neighbors, schools, governments and environment.

The current financial crisis not only underscores the bad behavior of many "consumers" and corporations in the past few years, but the flaws of the global/Internet economy. We've all been dragged into it and told there's no turning back. But we still have choices, even if those choices may be harder to know and find.

That's where Lowcountry Local First comes in.

The nonprofit, one of 60 affiliates of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economics, was founded two years ago to promote buying local and support local agriculture.

Next week, LLF kicks off Buy Local Week, Monday through Dec. 7, with events such as an "Eat Local Night" and a "Buy Local, Be Local Bash." (See list of events on Page 5D) The group also is printing 20,000 copies of a directory of local, independent businesses available as well as on its Web site next week.

"We want to level the playing field," says Jamee Haley, LLF's executive director. "It's our goal to see a 10 percent shift in spending (toward local products and providers)."

Haley claims that for every $100 spent at a local, independent business, $45 of it stays in the community.

The same amount spent at a national chain circulates about $15 locally. And of the amount used for a purchase on the Web, virtually nothing stays here.

Besides that, Haley says, local businesses are more likely to donate to causes at home than national chains.

She hopes people will retrain themselves to think about shopping locally just as many have started to bring their own reusable bags to the grocery store.

There's another angle to this "buy local" effort, particularly at the holidays.

I've never understood the shop-'til-you-drop attitude on Black Friday and have been sympathetic to the counter-campaign by Adbusters called "Buy Nothing Day." As it describes, it suggests buying nothing on the day after Thanksgiving.

This year, Adbusters suggests "rediscovering how folks made merry before the advent of the big-box store" by aspiring to varying degrees of a less consumptive holiday season.

I like this softer version of Adbusters' Buy Nothing message: Give more thoughtfully.

Similarly, Haley and LLF offer local alternatives to material gifts, such as making a donation to a local cause in the name of a loved one or buying a share of produce, wherein a local farm delivers a weekly share during a growing season, for a family member. Or take everyone out to eat at a restaurant that uses 25 percent locally sourced food and products.

Gift-giving should be viewed as an art form, not a mad rush, and this is the season to try to be more creative, more purposeful. Part of the purpose this year may just mean a neighbor, or you, can keep working for another year.

Buy Local Week

Monday: Give Local Holiday Bazaar. 3-8 p.m. 10 Storehouse Row, North Charleston. To kickoff Lowcountry Local First's "Buy Local Week," the holiday bazaar will bring together local artisans, cooks, musicians and nonprofits to showcase Charleston's rising talent and philanthropists. The event will take place at 10 Storehouse Row where the public will be invited to peruse holiday gifts, learn about local charities and sample homemade cuisine while enjoying music from local artists.

Wednesday: Eat Local Night. Local restaurants will be offering a "local lover plate" to spotlight the diversity of local food, and to encourage the public to support the local economy and are farmers. Check out lowcountrylocalfirst.org for participating restaurants.

dec. 4: (Film showing) "Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop." 7:30 p.m. Terrace Theater. $10 in advance. $15 at the door. Space is limited. The film is an account of filmmakers Hanson Hosein and wife Heather Hughes' expedition through 32 states as they look for an America unchained by corporate retail. Self-imposed road rules bar them from major highways and corporate chain retail. Traveling on alternative roads, the duo can do business only with "Mom & Pop" stores. After-party takes place at 9 p.m. at Zia Taqueria.

Dec. 7: Buy Local, Be Local Bash. 6-11 p.m. Lowndes Grove. Party features live music, local beer, wine and food from some of the best chefs in town including Fish, Coco's, Monza's, Taco Boy, The Fat Hen, Maverick Southern Kitchens, Holy City Hospitality, FIG, the Old Firehouse Restaurant, Cypress, Tristan, Middleton Place and The Culinary Institute of Charleston.

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.

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