Live local or die.

• Author: Atkins, Michael
• Position: President's Note - Viewpoint essay

Admittedly, the headline is a fairly cheesy steal from the famous New Hampshire licence plate "Live free or die." I owned a publishing company in New Hampshire for many years and so spent a little time in that neck of the woods.

There's no doubt they think a little differently in the granite state. For fun, after work when we were having a pint with staff, I would raise the topic of "public health care" (long before Obamacare) or the second amendment (guns) for discussion. It was like setting off a bomb. When I think about my guerrilla tactics for stimulating conversation, I must admit it said more about me than my audience. I do love a good debate, but it was more like a mauling. In the end, it was probably just licence plate envy from a guy who was born in a place where the declaration, "Je me souviens," is equally uncompromising. I mean, have you looked at your licence plate lately? "Yours to discover." Exactly. A tourism tagline. But I digress.

I am serious, however, about the power of local.

We have just survived a 78-day election. As I write, I do not know the result. It's possible our new government will mean a change in sensibility but not sovereignty. In our next Parliament, we will be adding the Trans Pacific Partnership to our European and North American Free Trade agreements, whatever its complexion. It is as dangerous to join a free-trade agreement as it is to demur. Most countries have given up authority on matters well beyond excise taxes and trade rules. They've given up levers on the food we eat, the drugs we ingest, the media we consume, the pollution we endure, and the energy we guzzle.

We have to remember our biggest trading partner thinks pizza is a vegetable and its Congress thinks global warming is a hoax.

So what happens in a small-population country like ours that is busy muzzling and laying off scientists is that your diet and nutrient values are set in another country as their international brands utilize trading rules that prevent you from effectively asserting your own.

What is in your food is just as important as who makes it or trades it. How many steroids arrive with the chicken on your plate matters.

The lesson is that, on one level, local communities have no control over much of anything, except of course if you raise your own chickens. The rise of farmers markets, and the connection between...