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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Why Buy Locally Grown?
  • Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:48:56 -0700


Why Buy Locally Grown?
http://www.caff.org/programs/buylocal.shtml

Consumers worldwide are rediscovering the benefits of buying locally grown
food. It is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious. It is also good for the
local economy--buying directly from family farmers helps them stay in
business.
Five reasons to Buy Local

1. Local produce tastes better and itÂ’s better for you.
A recent study showed that fresh produce loses nutrients quickly. In a
weeklong (or more) delay from harvest to dinner table, sugars turn to
starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality. Even in
California, produce may have traveled surprisingly far to get to your grocery
store. Food grown in your own community was probably picked within the past
day or two. It is crisp, sweet and loaded with flavor.

2. Local food supports local farm families.
Fewer than one million Americans now claim farming as their primary
occupation (less than 1%). Farming is a vanishing lifestyle. And no wonder:
the farmer today gets less than 10 cents of the retail food dollar. Local
farmers who sell directly to consumers cut out the many middlemen and get
full retail price for their food - which means farm families can afford to
stay on the farm, doing the work they love.

3. Local food protects genetic diversity.
In the modern industrial agriculture system, produce varieties are
chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously and withstand harvesting
equipment. Shippers demand produce with a tough skin that can survive
packing, transport, and a long shelf life in the store. Only a handful of
hybrid varieties of each fruit and vegetable meet those rigorous demands, so
there is little genetic diversity in the plants grown. In contrast, local
farmers that sell direct to you or direct to your local restaurants and
grocery stores grow a huge number of varieties selected because they have the
best flavors, provide a long harvest season, and come in an array of
eyecatching colors. Many varieties are heirlooms, passed down from generation
to generation because they taste good. These old varieties contain genetic
material from hundreds or even thousands of years of human selection. They
may someday provide the genes needed to adapt to a changing climate.

4. Local food preserves open space, and supports a clean environment.
As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases,
selling farmland for development becomes less likely. A well-managed family
farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are
valued. Good stewards of the land grow cover crops that prevent erosion and
replace nutrients used by their crops. Cover crops also capture emissions and
help combat global warming. In addition, the patchwork of fields, hedgerows,
ponds and buildings is the perfect environment for many beloved species of
wildlife. That landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially
viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive
about preserving the agricultural landscape.

5. Local food is about the future.
By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will
be farms in your community tomorrow, and that future generations will have
access to nourishing, flavorful and abundant food.
Look for the Central Coast Buy Fresh, Buy Local label and taste the
difference!






  • [Livingontheland] Why Buy Locally Grown?, Tradingpost, 12/06/2004

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