I just wanted to add my two cents from the prospective of an economics major: people trade food because there are gains to be made from trading food – the good things, like enjoying different foods of different regions of the world where we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. If you close yourself off to the outside, you’re closing off others from reaching you as well – and I think food is one of the most poignant ways through which people connect. Not to mention the fact that foreigners likely buy your produce as much as you do theirs (at least in my wheat-producing part of the world); it’s not just a matter of support for local farmers so much as support for farmers everywhere. What comes around goes around – and yes, the carbon footprints are bad, but I’d sooner give up driving than eating fresh fruit from Mexico on occasion.

Ever since the dawn of time, humans have traded local foods back and forth with each other. I mean, tomatoes–are they from Italy? No, they are from Central America. But can we imagine pasta marinara without tomatoes?

Of course not.

Chilies–they, too are from the New World, but now they are grown everywhere, and are ubiquitous in two of the greatest cuisines in the world–Indian and Chinese. They got there through trade.

And now they grow there–and they are local.

It is all a matter of perspective, I suppose.

Oh, and welcome back! I am glad to have you!