The Journey from Farm to Table: Why you should buy produce locally?
As an adventurous junior in high school, I took a daring step away from my home in Marin County and spent the Fall at a small semester school in Wiscasset, Maine. Along the jagged coastline, I found myself highly immersed in the land around me. In science class, we sank waist-deep into the oozing mud of the salt marsh surrounding the peninsula. In English we studied Thoreau under the shade of towering maples as their vibrant orange leaves drifted lightly through the air, making the inevitable descent to the earth’s floor. However, day after day I consistently found myself returning to my favorite place on campus: the farm.
Before my semester in Maine, I had never spent a day on a farm and did not think I ever would. One week into my time there though, I found myself volunteering for farm chores at every free moment I had. I fell in love with waking up before sunrise to collect the chicken’s eggs and digging my hands into rich soil as I harvested hundreds of carrots. Working on a farm was more physically demanding than I could have expected, but it gave me such an invaluable experience that I’ll always reflect on. Best of all, farming came with the greatest reward. Heading to the dining hall for a meal and seeing the potatoes I spent hours digging up earlier in the week served with my meal would always bring such a smile to my face. The same with my eggs for breakfast and the lettuce in my salad at lunch. The farm provided a large percentage of our food in the semester and I began to understand the value of growing and buying locally grown produce. There are many reasons you should too from not only from an environmental standpoint but also shopping locally for produce has great health and economic benefits too!
Top 10 reasons why you should shop locally for your produce:
Reduces food miles - Think about the last meal you ate and where each ingredient came from. Then, think about the hundreds or maybe even thousands of miles those ingredients traveled to you via trucks, trains, ships, and planes that it took to put that meal on your plate. With all those accumulated miles, the amount of fossil fuel used adds up quickly!
Preserves small farmland and wildlife - Buying local helps protect local lands and wildlife on small farmland near you. By supporting local farms, you are preventing the land from being bought and developed for industrial and commercial use.
Promotes accountability in ethical farming practices - When you purchase local produce, it is much easier to understand how the food you are consuming was grown. Local small farms are more likely to use sustainable farming practices as well as pursue or attain organic certification and care about the nutritional quality of their agricultural products.
Preserves genetic diversity - Commercial farms often use high-end technology to produce a single crop in mass amounts. However, small-scale farms often grow a wide variety of produce in smaller quantities. These farms also typically raise a wider array of animals which contributes to enhancing biodiversity and provides more options to the consumer.
Preservative-free - Local food is what it sounds like: LOCAL! That means that it does not need to travel many miles across the country stuffed with preservatives to keep it “fresh” over many days during that transit period.
Often free of harmful pesticides - Unlike large-scale commercial farms that typically spray poisonous pesticides over their crops, small farms are more likely to be organic and choose safer practices to control pests.
Keeps money in your community - Instead of giving your dollar to huge companies at a supermarket, support your hardworking community members and allow them to prosper.
Local farmers keep more of the profit - Local farmers do not have to worry about transportation and storage costs like commercial farms do and thus, they get to keep more of the profit for themselves.
Creates jobs - Small-scale farms are great for your local economy because they create jobs! By supporting these farms you also are supporting your community members looking for employment.
Supplies other local businesses - The best part of this all is that farms get to do everything all over again and give back to their community. Often farms will supply meat and vegetables to local restaurants, businesses, and hospitals. That said, shopping local supports more than the farmer that harvested your greens; it supports your favorite local restaurant as well as the food bank you volunteer at.
