oranges.

So today I bought some peaches and some juice oranges from a stand on the street. they were pretty cheap, and I love fruit. When I got home, I realized that my oranges were from South Africa. South Africa?! Hm, not so great. They have to travel a long way, which means they are 1. not fresh, 2. cost of lot of money to transport, and 3. probably were not obtained for their value. i.e. bought really cheaply. So I thought, maybe next time I'll pay a little more, and buy oranges from Spain, or somewhere a little closer. But then I thought... hmm.. For a long time, Europe has had direct trade with a lot of countries in Africa and South America. Now that they've become the European Union, they've put a higher priority on goods produced within the Union. Now, thats good, because its more local, doesn't have to travel as far. And then, countries that can grow/produce things well, do that, and trade for the stuff they can't. Same idea as before, only closer proximity. In general, not a bad idea, for those of us unwilling to minimize our consumption to solely local products. However...what happens to the prior markets? The ones that invested so heavily in monoagriculture or production, because they were told, no, each should do what it can do best. i.e. you grow coffee and you grow bananas, we'll buy from you, and then sell you whatever else you want. But then... the demand goes down. (or the market drops out due to local deals.) Now what do these poor countries do? No one wants their coffee anymore. or their bananas. or their oranges. So they rot. or get sold at a huge loss. And they have nothing else to sell. And they just lost a bunch of money, so they can't invest in other things. So.. they take out loans from... yep, those same big, bad countries (in europe, the U.S.) who told them to grow those things in the first place. Maybe the loan will help. or maybe its very conditional. and is only for growing, say, corn. Which doesn't grow there. But its ok, because look how much foreign aide we sent! yay! Hm... Clearly a very complicated issue. I'll have to research European trade, particularly with Africa, because I know a lot less about it than with Latin America. What other market does South Africa have? Besides diamonds, which are all owned by a company (maybe two or three) in London... Ah, international trade.