Bramblings: Support your neighbor

By BECKY NELSON
About 30 years ago, a friend of my mother told us she never knew when we were open at the store. Another acquaintance suggested we cut a lot of trees along the roadway so the storefront was more visible. I was very new to the retail business scene, coming from a working background in sales, banking and journalism. My husband, overwhelmed with the business of farming and trying to grow things to sell, had limited time to devote to the storefront but had a history of retail business management. So we accomplished the “clean-out” of trees and found a flag store so we could hang a flag out front.

Since then, I have had to replace a dozen or so flags. I usually went to a local shop to buy them. I tried last week to do so, but didn’t find an open flag in the area. Too busy to travel far while simultaneously trying to limit my business in brick-and-mortar stores during the novel coronavirus pandemic, I turned to the internet. I always try to get what I need locally first. But I do turn to the behemoth retailers when I can’t find what I need at home. When I do shop online, I try to find American made, especially now when the economy is rocking on stormy seas.

My flag search found lots of options, all for about $6. I never spent less than $15 in the local shops, so this was an attractive option, especially as I pay an annual fee for “free” shipping and some other perks. I kept searching, however, as I needed to try to buy “Made in the USA.” About two-thirds of the way down the list of options, I found one. Stitched and created in the United States of America. I was elated. With shipping, it cost me five times what the imported flag would have cost, but keeping a fellow American in a job is much more important to me.

With the pandemic raising havoc on our markets, our supply chains, our food sources and delivery systems, I urge you all to do the same. If you cannot find it locally, or find it more convenient or safe to order online, please take a minute or two to research the product and make sure it is made in the U.S.A. to help your cousin in Iowa, your sister in California, your brother in Louisiana. Perhaps not blood family, but certainly American family.

The same applies here at home. As you find the grocery store shelves empty and turn to your local food producers, be aware that you are going to pay more. But the quality will be better and you can actually see where the food is produced and talk to the person producing that food. My worry for my fellow food producers is that the recent scramble to the meat freezers and produce shelves at our stores will drop off the table and wither when the big grocery chains have overflowing shelves once again.

Please remember us when life in the food chain returns to “normal.” Please remember that our survival relies on your good will and frequent stops at our little establishments. We rely on our neighbors and American “family” for survival and our income just as you are now relying on your neighborhood farmers, ranchers and agriculturalists for your food that is in short supply because of the blip in supply.

It has been staggering to see how every impact of the virus on a particular corner of the economic world affects another corner. The meat packing plant shutdown because of worker illness affects not only the plant, but the middle purchaser/distributor, the truckers who carry the product to the stores, the purchasers at the store, the employees at the stores who have to work the front lines at the same time they have to try to explain empty shelves, and ultimately, you. It isn’t just food. It is the local clothing retailer, the pharmacy, the convenience store, the service providers that can’t get parts, the loggers whose markets have crashed. All of us.

So please, please, please. Support your local farm stands, restaurants and brick-and-mortar stores. We need each other more than ever.

Becky Nelson is co-owner of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, New Hampshire. You can contact her through the farm page on Facebook and Instagram, visit the retail store or email her at [email protected].