I am looking for ideas on what products should be produced locally. Not things that your area can do sn awesome job at and export. Rather things that should be locally produced near everyone.
Feel free to define “locally” as you wish. I am thinking with 5 miles, but with 200 is also good.
Please include your reasoning. Everything from shipping costs, to ownership “punch-ability” are great.
I will kick things off in the comments.
Baby formula.
If every community makes some, nation wide shortages may be less likely.
If the ownership are local, then irrate parents can punch them. This will avoid issues with quality.
If all producers are small, regulators can shut down bad actors. Currently, the big players get warnings (in some countries.)
The issue with baby formula is that it’s pretty strictly regulated by the FDA, and getting approval is a lengthy (and extremely expensive) process. So there are only a few companies that hold a functional near-monopoly on the production, because they’re the only ones who had the resources to go through the process.
And to be clear, I’m not advocating for looser regulation on formula. Safety regulations are writ in blood. But local formula production would essentially require massive subsidies and fast-tracking to offset the costs and testing associated with starting production.