Is Buying Local Always Best?

MetroIBA Members and Friends--

This article--

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0724/p13s02-lifo.html

--which appeared in the Christian Science Monitor the week of July 24, 2006, has caused a stir among our parent organization, the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), and its affliates.  I find some of the author's arguments tenuous--we should buy food from developing countries because the farmer may have harvested it with a donkey rather than a high-tech, carbon-spewing tractor?--but it's always good to know what we're up against.