The original "Sustainable", "Fair Trade", "Buy Local," and "Green"

At a meeting in Taos this morning, those now-too-common buzzwords "Sustainable," "Fair Trade" "Buy Local" and "Green" were thrown around once again.

I'm all for the concepts generally recognized as being associated with these buzzwords, but I sure am sick of hearing them and reading the words themselves. And the fact that often those touting these buzzwords can't see the forest for the trees.

I felt compelled to point out to this group of well-meaning folks those obvious facts we all forget from time to time:

Sustainability: The original Sustainable economy is making and selling stuff in your own backyard, figuratively speaking. Moving commodities and finished products dozens or hundreds of miles instead of thousands is inherently Sustainable and Green. Encouraging manufacturing within New Mexico should be tops on anyone's Sustainability agenda.

Fair Trade: The Fairest Trade is Internal Trade, within our borders. Our country obviously has environmental, labor and consumer-protection regulations which are far more stringent than those in so many countries where consumer goods are now mass produced.

Buy Local: Just those words don't quite go far enough if all they mean is "guilt tripping" consumers towards buying Chinese stuff in a locally-owned store rather than at Walmart. On the other hand, just encouraging production of New Mexico commodities, food and goods to be sold out of state or in chain stores isn't Buy Local either. Rather, the ultimate is locally-owned stores selling locally-produced products: THAT'S Sustainable, Fair Trade, Buy Local and Green, all in the same breath.

I'll throw out some ideas on how state government can encourage domestic production of New Mexico in a later post. It's not that hard.

OK, now you're thinking, "Yeah, well he's an owner of a company that sells New Mexico products, so I he's being self-serving." OK, I can't look impartial, so I won't even try. Sure, I'll profit if more NM goods are produced and sold. But, you could also look at it another way: I'm saying "bring on competition." Yep, I'm all in favor of more stores selling more New Mexico products. Fair's, fair. Now, maybe 3 stores in the same block all selling the same stuff isn't such a great thing in a tourist town like Taos or Santa Fe, but, even then, if it means 3 times as much NM stuff gets made; which it wouldn't.