I went to the grocery store today to pick up some extra fruit and vegetables. Raspberries and blueberries were on sale and I started looking through the 1/2 pints to find the best ones.
But then I stopped and was repulsed by what I saw. It wasn’t the quality of the produce though. It was the label of origin on the containers: California.
How could I support foreign growers from a country who is pushing its citizens to not choose products from my country? Of course the Obama administration isn’t outright saying “Don’t Buy Canadian”, but by saying “Buy American” its really 6 one way, 1/2 a dozen the other.
As Canadians we don’t realize how much of our food supply offered to us originates outside of our borders…or maybe the correct statement is that we don’t really care. We see ourselves supporting Canadian businesses at the higher levels (Sobey’s in this case), while ignoring the growers supplying produce at the lower levels and where they come from.
I’m not saying that Canadians should not purchase imported goods. The global economy relies on both exports and imports to thrive. Saying one should only buy Canadian only is hypocritical when we want other countries to purchase our exports.
But when a government (the US) is outright suggesting that its citizens ignore foreign imports in favour of locally generated goods, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of people living in what equates to one of the largest export and import partners of the protectionist country.
Now, I did still purchase the berries…although it killed me to do so. In a few weeks a truck will pull into town that sells fruit grown from British Columbia all summer long and I plan to buy all my fruit there.
Sure it may cost a bit more, but I’d rather pay a bit more and know that I’m supporting a Canadian industry that many other Canadians are comfortable seeing suffer at the hands of an economic bully.
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