Local Produce

So, I just ate a delicious orange, and I noticed when I pulled the sticker off of it, that it came all the way from South Africa!! WTF? Why is my grocery store in Milford, MA buying bags of oranges from South Africa? Does that seem weird to anyone else, or is it just me? I just can't help but wonder what that bag of oranges had to go through to get here. Was it nothing short of planes, trains, and automobiles for that bag of South African oranges?

I also can't help but feel guilty that I'm not supporting the local community, or better yet, just plain old America. I would much rather be supporting an American Orange grower....I'm sure there are plenty that need my support. Why does my Massachusetts grocery store out source their oranges to South Africa. (I know, I know, I should have gone to a damn farmer's market, but I didn't!) I can't help but think it costs a fortune to bring those oranges to the states. Wouldn't it cost the same to get them more locally? Can local farmers not supply the demand for such a big grocery chain? Am I dabbling in, dare I say the words,.....Global Economics right now? Those words remind me of college, and of scary college classes taught by terribly uninteresting professors that create nothing less than a snooze fest instead of economic awareness. Maybe that's why I don't know the answers to these seemingly simple questions.

Why can't the grocery stores stock their shelves with local fair? I'm sure the local farmers don't have the overhead of a factory over seas, or maybe the oranges came from a local South African Farmer who really drives a tractor.....I don't really know, but I still can't help but think it's weird that I still have 4 oranges left in my house that traveled here from South Africa. Oh if those oranges could talk......would they have a British accent?