"Wow, what took you so long?"
"You wouldn't believe what I just saw. You see that truck sitting over there?"
"Yeah"
"They are unloading that truck right now, it's full of potato chips from Mexico."
"So?"
"They are unpackaging them and then repackaging them into Made in America bags."
"What?!"
"When they are done with that they will re-load us."
"You have to be kidding."
He wasn't. I don't remember the chain or the location of this place, and quite frankly I don't want to. Over the years I have seen this happen far too often. For example, most of the vegetables from California are actually from Mexico. They are shipped over the border and re-boxed, because it is cheaper than maintaining their own farms. The Orange juice concentrate also crosses the border from Mexico or the ports in California and is shipped across the country in order to be assembled and packaged in Florida as "Florida Orange Juice". Most steel buildings are American steel shipped down to Mexico, shaped, brought back across the border in and then sold as American Steel buildings. One of the things I have learned from all of this is that the "Made in..." labels you see on a product don't mean anything other than that the product was packaged in America and as a result a small increase in the price you pay for the item.
So, where did the movement first come from?
The Buy American movement started in 1764 when 50 Boston merchants, tired of British constraints, agreed to give up various items imported from England. Their actions went on to inspire entire towns, cities, and influential leaders to follow suit. Not long after, the Bostonians were throwing tea into the harbor and the American Revolution forged ahead right after.
The idea was re-ignited through the Buy American campaign which came about in response to the Great Depression. William Randolph Hearst, Jr. used the front pages of his 27 daily newspapers to promote a Buy American campaign in the 1930s. His journalism is thought to have not only stirred American economic growth, but also helped fuel the American Patriotic movement just in time for World War 2.
Eventually, buying American became so popular that President Hoover signed it into law as the Buy American Act of 1933. With growing demands for domestic apparel and a 25 percent drop in imports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) started regulating the industry with the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939. The FTC went on to label many other products with their content and the location of their origin.
With the most recent downturn in the economy in 2009, the movement has once re-ignited with the intentions of helping fuel American businesses and bring home jobs lost overseas to China. However, from my own experience above, I do not see that happening any time soon. There is far too much profit to be made while duping the average citizen into paying extra for an item.
How can I know for sure if I really am buying American?
The first thing to realize is that regardless of what you are told, most of the products that are manufactured and sold in stores are not done so in America. The only way to know for sure whether something is truly of American (or of another country) origin is to go directly to the source. This would be farmers, local crafts people, lumber mills, quarries and mines. Everything else could easily have been just re-packaged.
The Buy American movement started in 1764 when 50 Boston merchants, tired of British constraints, agreed to give up various items imported from England. Their actions went on to inspire entire towns, cities, and influential leaders to follow suit. Not long after, the Bostonians were throwing tea into the harbor and the American Revolution forged ahead right after.
The idea was re-ignited through the Buy American campaign which came about in response to the Great Depression. William Randolph Hearst, Jr. used the front pages of his 27 daily newspapers to promote a Buy American campaign in the 1930s. His journalism is thought to have not only stirred American economic growth, but also helped fuel the American Patriotic movement just in time for World War 2.
Eventually, buying American became so popular that President Hoover signed it into law as the Buy American Act of 1933. With growing demands for domestic apparel and a 25 percent drop in imports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) started regulating the industry with the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939. The FTC went on to label many other products with their content and the location of their origin.
With the most recent downturn in the economy in 2009, the movement has once re-ignited with the intentions of helping fuel American businesses and bring home jobs lost overseas to China. However, from my own experience above, I do not see that happening any time soon. There is far too much profit to be made while duping the average citizen into paying extra for an item.
How can I know for sure if I really am buying American?
The first thing to realize is that regardless of what you are told, most of the products that are manufactured and sold in stores are not done so in America. The only way to know for sure whether something is truly of American (or of another country) origin is to go directly to the source. This would be farmers, local crafts people, lumber mills, quarries and mines. Everything else could easily have been just re-packaged.