I've visited the United states on several very short occasions, each lasting only a few days, and my experiences with the people and country have all been very pleasant indeed, "cool" even.
source: National Park Service
But COOL in the title is an acronym for Country Of Origin Labeling, a set of rules and laws that mandate, or make it possible that certain products are labeled as originating from a certain country. Ford automobiles are labeled "Made in the USA", a lot of Walmart products are "Made in China", "Made in Taiwan" and so on. The placing of a product's country of origin is an already very old habit, with the earliest examples dating back more than 4000 years, so it won't surprise you to learn that the effects of country of origin labeling on consumer purchasing have been extensively studied. The country of origin effect is also known as the "made-in image" and the "nationality bias"; I actually considered using "Nationality Bias" as the title for this post, but visions of angry reactions labeling me some sort of supremacist made me reconsider...
Anyhow, in Wikipedia it says:
Research shows that consumers' broad general perceptions of a country, including of its national characteristics, economic and political background, history, traditions, and representative products, combine to create an overall image or stereotype that is then attached to the products of that country. For example, a global survey carried out by Nielsen, reported that Country of origin image has a significant influence on consumer perceptions and behaviours, and in situations in which additional information is unavailable or difficult to get can be the sole determinant of whether or not someone buys a product. [...] Several studies have shown that consumers tend to have a relative preference to products from their own country or may have a relative preference for or aversion against products that originate from certain countries (so-called affinity and animosity countries).
source: Wikipedia
Take that as you wish, but I can't find anything wrong with having a bias toward products that are made in one's own country; besides the obvious natural preference to support one's most immediate neighbors, one's own society that has provided the environment in which one thrives, there are several other, purely rational reasons to favor local over imported goods. Preserving the environment and preventing even more anthropogenic climate change for example; it's irrational to burn energy by transporting stuff that could be made nearby. Well, unless your view on the world is completely captivated by the capitalist mindset that is: economically this import- export trading game makes all the sense in the world as it promotes growth and increases opportunities to make a profit.
We should do a lot more local producing, and the first sector that comes to mind is agriculture; we waste so much by not growing our own local food, when there are so many possibilities to do so like vertical farming and mixed crop and livestock farming, which amounts to the production of animals and crops on the same farm, or the use of animals to help produce crops and vice versa. Animal waste can be used as fertilizer for the plants, and in return, some of the plants help supply the animals with food.
Right now, American ranching is being threatened by monopoly and corporatism from the globalist oligarchy, a lot of which has to do with the removal of the mandatory country of origin labeling for red meat products like beef. Imported meat can now be labeled "Made in the USA" if the meat is grown and slaughtered in countries with less food-safety regulations, and only packaged in the USA. This is not an exclusively American problem: the global elite operates... well... global, which means all over the world end-consumers are being duped and could be adding to the environment problems while genuinely trying to do their best to reduce the carbon-footprint by buying "local" products. Here's a short interview with ex-rancher Bill Bullard; I hope this reminds us all that putting the responsibility for handling climate change on the shoulders of individuals is just crazy. No amount of separating garbage, personal recycling or responsible consuming will do the job as long as the global elite is allowed to play their games...
How monopoly and corporatism is killing American ranching
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