What would you do?

What would you do if the shelves were bare?

Sure they’ve been sparse lately… but we haven’t had to truly go without.

Maybe buy an off brand product here and there, or choose whole milk instead of skim, but we have been able to get what we need (or a decent dupe of it at least) in the end.

We as a society have so much surplus of everything in our lives, that we don’t even know the things we take for granted.

Have we ever stopped to think what our life would be like without shampoo? Deodorant? Over the counter medicines like headache relief meds or stomachache relief meds?

So what would you do if the stores were empty and the cash registers no longer sang?

Would you line up in front of the food bank and hope there’s enough to give that by the time you get to the front, they don’t tell you “sorry we’re out for the day, come back tomorrow and try again.”?

If the shelves were empty, would there be enough for people to even give to the food banks?

Would you wait until you were so hungry that road kill stew sounded like a delicacy?

Would you dumpster dive and forage for dinner?

Of course both of these would have obvious health risks, but what are the other options?

Would you hunt for your own food? Or fish? Maybe a bit of both?

What if you live in a town where there is no wildlife to hunt? And no access to a body of water big enough to hold fish?

Would you grow your own food?

I would. Although it can take practice to grow enough food to feed a family, and some fruits and veggies take years to mature enough to produce food. Would you barter or buy from a farmer?

I would. They have the experience and knowledge to keep whatever their produce or livestock of choice is healthy enough to grow enough to feed a small army provided they have the land to do it on.

But how many farmers do you know?

How many local stores do you know that sell local produce?

When is the last time you went grocery shopping anywhere that didn’t have a giant blue logo on the front of the building that made it indistinguishable from thousands of other stores across the world?

Food prices across the nation are on the rise. This is a fact that I feel isn’t a surprise to anyone. We have all felt the hit to our bank accounts.

Food prices go up when gas goes up, but you know who doesn’t have to ship their food in from halfway across the continental United States?

Local farmers and ranchers.

This weekend it was less expensive to get my weekly fruits and veggies from the farmers market in Stillwater than it was at the big blue wally world.

It was less expensive to buy meat at Circle S Meats.

It was less expensive to get honey from a bee keeper at the farmers market.

Shopping local isn’t an extravagant expense.

Shopping local is an economically sustainable way to support each other as a community.

Times are hard right now for everyone and if I had to guess, it is going to get a whole lot harder before it gets easier.

Let’s support each other through this.

Be kind to your neighbors,

Be kind to your pets,

Thank a farmer,

And SHOP LOCAL