Excellent article Valerie Yule.Also note that the shipping industry puts out far more toxic pollutants than all the cars and trucks on the planet.

If we made more things at home,we'd save fuel and reduce the world's pollution dramaticly.

Does it matter where something comes from, it is not law to bye it.
Be AU and bye AU.

Good article :
“But people laugh because they can buy cheaper shoes, clothes, chemicals and furnishings from overseas. They do not consider that the cost of freight and of overseas goods will be higher in the future. They do not consider how the former workers will be unemployed”

But people will not be laughing, when peak oil pushes the price of all imports up, as it most surely will.
Will our ability to manufacture these items ourselves be lost by then?
Our ability to feed ourselves will also be lost as our farming is displaced by cheap imports.
Still we will have huge holes in the ground where are minerals were. We can maybe show them to tourists for a living.

So Valerie, next time I need a lemon, rather then spend 80c,
do you think I should go hunting around suburbs to see who might
have a lemon tree? What would that cost me?

Dear Yabby
The shops could sell local lemons, or at least Australian

Dear Ozideas, they probably would, if they were available and
somebody formed a supply chain and supplied them to a certain
quality specification. Its not up to the shops to go and pick them
and form that supply chain, so the point about some lemons on
backyard trees was all about feelgood, not about any kind of
reasoned thinking.

America actually buys quite alot of agricultural products from
us. They buy huge volumes of lean beef, they are our first or
second largest customer of lamb, they buy large volumes of our
wine. So why should I not buy one of their lemons occasionally,
if none are available locally? Coles and Woolies do in fact prefer
to buy locally, but things like lemons need to be available all
year around, not just sometimes or on the backyard trees.