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When you have written an opinion piece on any subject weekly for a quarter of a century, you come to truly appreciate when someone takes the time to send off an email regarding the effort.
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Admittedly, it’s even more appreciated when it is a positive response.
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So it was recently when I received one relating to the closure of the Kellogg’s plant in London, ON.
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Kellogg’s had a long history in Canada and London in particular.
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The familiar breakfast cereal was introduced to Canada in 1914, the London plant purchased in 1924.
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In 1984 the plant underwent a $223 million expansion.
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By 2005 it was producing 104 million kilograms of product, but by 2014 that was down to 54 million kilograms, and two days before Christmas that year the plant closed.
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Now it’s not that Kellogg’s breakfast products are no longer on store shelves, it’s just that they are now made in another country and shipped to Canada for distribution to stores.
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The situation is not unique, as the email noted, forwarding a list of facilities closed in Canada, the products now made outside of Canada, among them the closure of the Hershey plant in Smith Falls, ON several years ago.
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The overall gist of the email was simple enough, being that perhaps Canadian consumers should spent some time looking at labels and making purchases decisions based upon where the product was made.
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It seems like a rather simple idea, buy Canadian to protect jobs in this country.
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It tends to run counter to the philosophy of free trade and open borders which politicians seem intent on pushing for by way of being signatories to various trade deals, but politics and public desires are often not in sync.
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In some respects label gazing to buy Canadian is just an extension of ideas such as the 100-mile diet, whereby consumers look to buy from local sources as a way to better understand their food supply.
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The idea of buying locally, or nationally, for that matter, should be pretty straight forward. Most Chambers of Commerce will be supportive of the idea of buying locally, not that they mind dollars arriving from the next town down the road either, but buying locally is always a good concept to hold dear.
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Certainly, it’s a balancing act.
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Consumers have budgets, and there has to be a consideration of price, whether it’s a car, a shirt, or a dozen eggs.
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But, there also is the question of how many jobs we are willing to see transferred beyond our borders before we decide buying Canada-first should at least be part of the equation when patrolling food aisles, or buying a light bulb.
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And that extends very naturally to thinking of our food at least in terms of at least a Canadian-diet, milk, cheese, eggs, pork raised and processed here in this country,
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Now that is certainly food for thought.
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Calvin Daniels is Editor with Yorkton This Week.
