For a long time, I have been trying to shop local, sustainable, and organic whenever I can. To me the local and sustainable are really two sides of the same coin. While large corporations have their place (I’ll never be able to break my Target addiction), in many ways they separate us too much from the fulfillment of our basic needs. It is amazing to hear how the farmer harvests my vegetables or how the rancher raised the beef that I am eating—that knowledge connects me to my food sources and makes it more REAL. The things I buy stop being stuff and return to being actual items like a steak, a bunch of carrots, or a sweater that was created (in one way or another) by an actual human.
Without getting to heavy into the politics, I want to tell you about a couple of things that I am doing to support local, sustainable, or just better products.
Changing My Twitter Content
Though I used to occasionally tweet about a beloved small or local company, I am going to make it the focus of my tweets. My ultimate goal is to tweet about one business per day every day in 2010. I’m not sure if it is possible, not even I shop THAT much, but I am going to try. Follow me on Twitter, if you want to know about local and smaller businesses are doing great things.
Supporting Programs that Promote Local
- Vote for your favorite business on Intuit’s Love a Local Business site. They have made it super easy to go online and nominate any local businesses that you love. Each nomination gives the business an entry into Intuit’s monthly drawing for five $1,000 grants. From those five winners, the Intuit community chooses one to win a $5,000.
On a side note, they also have a great Love a Local Business search tool to help you find great local business. Use this tool on your next trip to avoid the tourist traps and find the places the locals hang out. - To find great Arizona business (or if you have a business and want to network), check out Local First AZ. They are a very active organization dedicated to promoting and supporting local businesses in AZ. Membership fees are reasonable and they have a ton of events and promotions each month.
To you have a local business that you love or a great resource to share? Post it to the comments, I’d love to hear about it.
