Go local

This story is inspired by a real life experience.

I came home to see that we had guests. The guest were my wealthy aunt and uncle. They had lived in the Gulf countries for several years. No wonder they were wealthy but they also had extravagant lifestyle. They had no value towards local products and would use everything imported.

When aunt saw me, she handed me a pack of almonds. Boasting about her wealth she further informed me that she knows a vendor who imports almonds directly from California. She would regularly place order at this vendor to get best quality almonds. She also told me that she knows best vendors for food, cosmetics, skin care, and fashion accessories. She informed me that she is the member of these Elite clubs where these vendors take personalised orders for their customers. Looking at my face she assumed that I am really impressed with her wealth and connections. In reality I was thinking how much unsustainable her lifestyle is.

A lot of people carry this pride that they do not use the local products or the products that are made in their own country. They order products from different countries and they use only imported products. This attitude turns every effort towards sustainability into an oblivion.

Now I only plan to focus on the sustainability and I want to leave aside the financial aspect. First let's understand what happens when we use local products. Local products are transported from different cities away but within the country. They are transported in bulk units. The cost of transportation and fuel per unit becomes low because of all these parameters. Considering these factors we can say that local products are more sustainable than important products.

Now let's talk about important products. The products that are manufactured or packaged outside our country and need to be imported via air or marine transportation. Because of the long distance the fuel cost and the transportation cost would be higher. Consumption of fuel would also be higher. Hence in my opinion importing the products is not sustainable and harmful towards environment. If they are imported in bulk still they would be little more sustainable however if Elite clubs are asking for their unique personalized orders to be imported they will be never close to sustainable.

Another aspect of the imported products is with respect to their relevance. The imported products may not be suitable for our weather and climatic conditions. The skin care products because of the different climatic condition may not suit our skin. The second possibility which is worse is they would not maintain their consistency because of different climatic conditions. There have been many instances that the products from European market tend to get spoilt in the Indian weather because of the excessive heat. Would you like this to happen to your products?

Where as if we talk about local products then they take into the consideration of the climatic conditions. This products would be able to hold their consistency even with the excessive heat if stored correctly. The products are formulated taken into account the tropical weather of our country. Hence you will notice that local products go a long way.

Hence while you are purchasing anything ask yourself if it will be a sustainable choice. I am sure that being intelligent customers you would make the right choice for yourself.