Static linking problem on matplotlib eggs

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this. I get the following error
when building on OSX. Notice that it looks into /usr/local for libraries:

/usr/local/include/ft2build.h:56:38:/usr/local/include/ft2build.h:56:38:
error: error: freetype/config/ftheader.h: No such file or
directoryfreetype/config/ftheader.h: No such file or directory

Even though there is nothing that points there in my env:

MANPATH=/usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/X11/man
TERM=xterm-color
SHELL=/bin/bash
SSH_CLIENT=fe80::211:24ff:fe8d:9019%en1 57594 22
OLDPWD=/Users/chris/Development/freetype-2.3.5
LFLAGS=-arch ppc -arch i386 -L/Users/chris/Development/libpng-1.2.23
-L/Users/chris/Development/freetype-2.3.5
SSH_TTY=/dev/ttys001
USER=chris
PAGER=less
MAIL=/var/mail/chris
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin:
/usr/local/bin:/usr/texbin
PWD=/Users/chris/Development/matplotlib
PS1=(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$
SHLVL=1
HOME=/Users/chris
CFLAGS=-arch ppc -arch i386 -I/Users/chris/Development/libpng-1.2.23
-I/Users/chris/Development/freetype-2.3.5
PYTHONPATH=/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages:
LESS=-r
LOGNAME=chris
SSH_CONNECTION=fe80::211:24ff:fe8d:9019%en1 57594
fe80::214:51ff:feef:bad8%en1 22
_=/usr/bin/env

Moreover, basedir['darwin'] is set to [] in setupext.py.

So, I'm totally baffled. Where else could matplotlib be getting library path
information from??

Thanks.