In their documentary Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop, husband-and-wife journalists Hanson Hosein and Heather Hughes travel 13,000 miles through 32 states on a quest to find the soul of the mom-and-pop business. On the road, they follow two basic rules: no interstate highways (only secondary roads) and no corporate chains—no Wal-Marts, no Best Westerns, no Taco Bells—just independently owned businesses. Driving through ghost cities with abandoned downtowns, the commercial sector having relocated to the strip surrounding the big-box stores and chains on the outskirts of the municipalities, the filmmakers offer some frightening statistics about what has happened to independent businesses in the last 15 years and the growth of big-box stores.

• Since 1990, 11,000 independent pharmacies have closed. In the same time period, 40 percent of the independent booksellers in the US have gone out of business.

• The 100 top chain restaurants capture half of all US restaurant spending.

• Starbucks currently has 7,000 locations, with another 1,300 planned by 2007; Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer and wealthiest corporation, has 4,000 stores, and plans to double the number of its stores by 2010; Borders, America's biggest bookseller, has 1,000 locations.

Hosein and Hughes, to their credit, don't come to any conclusions about what "mom-and-pop" means. They visit the Farmer's Diner in Barre, Vermont, where more than half the food served is produced within 50 miles, and they visit Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters. The most interesting comment in the film, however, comes from a mom-and-pop advocate, and it was dispiriting and empowering at the same time: "Our real vote today in America is with our dollars." It's a hoary cliché to state that we have been transformed from citizens into consumers, but to hear a local-business proponent proclaim consumerism as a strategy for a progressive movement felt like that much air being let out of my last semi-deflated balloon of idealism. Nevertheless, where we choose to spend our money, as consumers, is our most potent power.

To descend into histrionics about our consumer culture at this point, however, is a bit useless. Independent America contains many fine example of communities that are actively seeking to keep businesses locally owned. In our backyard, Sustainable Hudson Valley, an organization working to create a sustainable regional economy, is launching an initiative to educate communities and help them plan for economic security. SHV's campaign will kick off with two benefit screenings of Independent America, March 11 at 12pm at Upstate Films and April 9 at 1pm at the Rosendale Theatre. For more information, visit www.sustainhv.org.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (www.hometownadvantage.org) has put together a list of 10 reasons why we should support locally owned businesses. Think about these the next time you're hankering for a Vente Marble Mocha Macchiato.

Local Character & Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.

Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.

Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of the decisions.

Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.

Jobs & Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally, and in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America's economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more effective use of public services relative to big-box stores and strip shopping malls.

Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers—think Rhinebeck, or New Paltz, versus the big box-store strips of Wappingers Falls and Kingston. Walkable town centers are essential for reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

Competition
A marketplace of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices.

Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of local customers, guarantees a broader range of product choices.

—Brian K. Mahoney