From readers.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

Does the Buy-Local Ethic Always Make Sense?

In "The Argument for Local Food" (May/Tune 2003), Brian Halweil persuasively argues for buying food from nearby farmers because of the resulting benefits for the local economy. However, his argument leaves out two points. First, the "buy local" principle presumably is intended to be practiced everywhere, and not just in one's own community. If so, then the people somewhere else whom you are not buying from are also not buying from you; to focus on the money you keep in the local economy by buying locally is to give only half the story.

Second, even if a "buy local" campaign does have a net local economic benefit, I do not see the moral rectitude of the common exhortation to "keep the money circulating in the local economy" (as exemplified by local currencies, several of which Halweil mentions). Again, money you keep close to home is money that doesn't go to someone somewhere else who might need it a lot more. I don't find it particularly noble or principled for a wealthier-than-average community to say "we're only going to buy from each other." Granted, inter-regional commerce doesn't necessarily reduce inequalities of wealth and income, but at least sometimes it does, and a fair discussion of the issue would acknowledge this, rather than raising "buy local" to an absolute doctrine. We would do well to remember a system that once did raise local self-sufficiency to an absolute doctrine: the manors of medieval Europe.

WILLIE LOCKERETZ

Boston, Massachusetts

It's Not About Oil, Really!

As a long-time supporter of Worldwatch Institute, I receive World Watch regularly and now have the May/June issue at hand. Therein I read your "It's Not About Oil"--obviously a sarcastic title.

Oil does cause war, and in my book GeoDestinies, I discuss resource wars, including those of oil. However, the current matter in Iraq is not about oil. Give it at least a little logical thought. Can the United States rake all the oil from Iraq? Obviously not. The world would not stand for it. And besides, we were getting oil from Iraq on the open market already. Before hostilities, we landed 700,000 barrels a day from Iraq on the U.S. west coast.

WALTER YOUNGQUIST

American Association of Petroleum Geologists Eugene, Oregon

The editor responds: Isn't there a difference between buying oil and controlling the flow of both the oil and the profits from its sale? If you run the store, you can cut yourself a pretty nice deal. And...