It's a Myth that you Can't Buy American

The other day I got an email from my friend Judy, and I am blogging today based on what I learned from her email. It was about how one person can make a difference. A physics teacher tells the story that if there were one grasshopper on the railroad tracks it would make no impact, but if there were a billion grasshoppers on the tracks think about what might happen.

In other words, if I do something it won't mean much, but if everyone who reads this also does the same thing, and they pass it on, and so forth and so on, it will make a big difference.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about buying American. How are we going to protect our manufacturing industries and jobs if we don't support American made products. I know that every time you go to Wal Mart or Target you see many products made in China or some other third world country. To me the idea of small children working to produce a product is abhorrent. I would rather pay a few pennies more and know that adults were producing the item. Here's some of what I found out after a bit of research.

A hose nozzle at Lowe's is made in Mexico. A hose nozzle at Ace Hardware is made in the U.S. Did you know that Hershey's candy is made in Mexico? I will buy a different brand from now on. My favorite Colgate toothpaste is made in Mexico, but Crest is made in the U.S. G.E. light bulbs are made in Mexico, the generic store brand is made in the U.S, and the G.E. bulbs are more expensive. Check out http://www.blogger.com/www.madeinusa.org or http://www.blogger.com/www.stillmadeinusa.com for more items you can buy that are made in the U.S.A.

My next stop was Trader Joe's, one of my favorite places to shop, but today was a disappointment. I was checking labels to see where their products originated. My favorite cold cereal, Barbara's is made in Canada. That's better than China because children didn't make it, but it's still not American. I may have to change brands.

Most products in Trader Joe's carry their own label, thus the country of origin is NOT listed. All they say is "distributed and sold exclusvely by Trader Joe's, Monrovia, California." This gives you no information as to it's origin. I know the FDA is looking into laws requiring country of origin to be included on the label, but that may be a long way off. Supermarkets are starting to label fruits and vegetables, and this is a great help. But so many things are made abroad, and we should at least be able to know where they come from if we want to.

So, here's what I'm doing and I hope you will try this to, and pass along the idea to others. That's the way things get done. Pick out five items that you buy regularly and see where they're from. If they're not from the U.S. try to find a similar item at a similar price that's made here. How else are we going to save jobs and show the big corporations that we don't want products made by little children? There is power in numbers, and we can make a difference. America still produces food, clothing, furniture, electronics and much more. Let's support these companies and keep Americans working.