Feeling alienated because of commodity fetishism?

Then buy local... well not necessarily local, but one Brooklyn resident (in another life experiment for a year in the vein of No Impact Man, Barbara Kingsolver, Gary Nahban among others (as opposed to long standing lifestyle change found in folks like one of my heroes Joan Gussow)) tried buying only from producers whom he knew, or at least met one of the workers along the commodity chain. His project is called the Consumer Reconnection Project and his blog can be found here. He met producers from local farmers (my favorite!) to athletic shoe producers in an attempt to demystify the social relations of production (at least in my words). In his words he set out to "become aware of my own dependence on blind consumption, and gain an understanding of the people and processes involved in making commodities available to me." A noble project regardless of the underlying theoretical framework I would say. Check out his site and think about the "who" and the "how" behind what you buy (along with the food you eat).