Tryptophan bad dream

For all who will be enjoying a festive turkey meal on Christmas day, regulations will probably be the furthest thing from your mind.  But as the tryptophan kicks in, dream about this—who is making sure that turkey isn’t a danger to your health?

Stephen McDonnell is the founder and CEO of Applegate Natural and Organic Meats.   In an opinion editorial running in many outlets across the country this week, McDonnell has a sobering message about the need for more regulations to make the food we eat safer.

Most people probably would be surprised to learn that 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States are used in animal agriculture. The vast majority is for non-therapeutic purposes, such as promoting growth and compensating for effects of unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. Many of the antibiotics used in food animal production, such as penicillins and tetracyclines, are the same drugs we rely on to treat human illnesses, and therein lies the problem.  Read more.

Now go finish your holiday shopping at a locally-owned small business.

Triple the impact of your holiday dollar$

With the holiday season fast approaching and customers getting ready to open up their wallets, this is really the time to remember your SC locally-owned small businesses.

Please join us in our “BuySC” nonprofit action campaign. Surveys continue to show that communities with programs encouraging buying from locally-owned businesses improve the sales for those businesses during the holidays. When customer awareness of these programs is high, they seek out locally-owned businesses for their shopping and purchases. It’s just that simple.

And not only do the locally-owned retailers benefit, their communities benefit in a very tangible way.

®© Cinda Baxter, 2009. All rights reserved. Used here with permission.

All studies indicate that your spending dollar has THREE TIMES the economic impact on your local economy when you buy from a locally-owned business than if that same dollar is spent at a big box store or national chain with out-of-state ownership.

You hold the key to growing your local economy and it is right in your wallet.

The nonprofit SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce isn't alone -- there are a number of "shop local" campaigns out there, from Lowcountry Local First and the SCDA's Certified SC Grown program to The 3/50 Project, which inspired our new Buy SC "Local Has It" quarterly action campaign.

TRIPLE THE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK in leading us out of these recessionary times without spending any more money during this holiday season and all year. Just make your purchases from a SC locally-owned small business.

If you need help, we’re building our BuySC.org website directory for consumers to find locally-owned small businesses. These business owners believe in the power of keeping our money in local economies.






If you believe and want to TRIPLE the impact of your money to help, start now. Shop with SC locally-owned businesses and watch your local economy grow.