Thanksgiving is coming up and we all know what that means. Stuffing ourselves silly, watching the game, getting drunk, and eventually passing out before 8 o’clock. Oh, yeah the family part is always nice too. So, what do these ramblings on have to do with supporting the local economy? Easy, just buy locally grown foods. I read an interesting article from the statesman entitled: Greening up Thanksgiving, One Turkey Leg at a Time, which talks about why Texans have two reasons for buying locally. One, it helps keep down emissions from shipping trucks. And two, buying locally helps our local economy.
Most food we buy from H-E-B or Randall’s, is shipped from out of state. When you go to buy a can of yams for that succulent baked dish we know as Candied Yams, those sweet potatoes probably did not come from Texas. More likely than not, they were shipped from some state like North Carolina. Gas is used to ship those cans from wherever they came from to your local store. What a waste in gas when the yams could have come from North East Texas. That is just talking about the tons of yams that are shipped from out of state, think about all the other produce like pecans and turkey.
Besides gas usage and being environmentally friendly, think about our local economy. The best way to support our economy is to support our farmers. Any money you spend on out of state yams, a portion will go to another state. Yes, I am proud of you for going to H-E-B and not Wal-mart. H-E-B being a Texas grocery store is good and encouraging, but it is even better if the produce you buy from it is locally grown. They sell it at H-E-B too; we just have to look for it. So, whether you decide to go with a tofurkey or not, try to be a little green this Thanksgiving and buy locally.
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