Monday, September 19, 2011

Good Ideas for a Small Planet

Buy Fresh, Buy Local

Have you found yourself perusing a local farmer’s market in recent years, delighting in the variety of fragrances, colors, shapes and tastes? Do you seek out restaurants that serve up local seasonal foods from your area farms? Are you happy to find fresh brown eggs from free-range chickens, sweet basil by the fistfuls and newly pressed cider from just-picked apples? Then you are part of the growing movement of citizens making sustainable choices as “Locavore s”. All over the world, people shop for daily meals in local bazaars and markets. Today American’s are awakening to this ancient and sustainable practice. Here are just a few good reasons to Buy Fresh, Buy Local.

  1. You will conserve our precious resources. The typical item in a grocery store travels 1500 miles to its place on your plate. On average, each of us consumes 400 gallons of oil per year for our grocery-store foods. (Modern Agri-business uses about 17% of our nation’s energy use.)*
  2. For food –related fuel economy, consider this: If each of us ate just one meal a week (any meal) of foods from local and organically raised meats and produce, we would save 1.1 million barrels of oil each week! *
  3. Fresh sun-ripened fruit tastes much better! Vegetables contain sugars that begin turning to starch & nutrients that begin to degrade immediately after being picked from the plant. Freshly picked = more flavor & more nourishment.
  4. You will strengthen your local economy and support endangered family farms. Each dollar you spend locally circulates in your community. Of each dollar spent at the grocery store, 15 cents goes to the farmer, and 85 cents goes to the middlemen.
  5. Getting to know your farmers helps build understanding and trust, the foundation for a strong community.
  6. You will have better chance for good health. Local farmers are less likely to use chemicals, growth hormones, antibiotics, & genetically modified foods. Buy food from local farmers you can trust.
  7. You will protect the environment and your own backyard. Less fossil fuel & chemical pollution, less local development. Small farms that remain profitable are less likely to sell to developers.
  8. When you vote for local, fresh food with each dollar you spend, you assure that healthy, flavorful food will be available for future generations.

How to find a farmer’s market or local direct farm to consumer:

www.localharvest.org; www.csacenter.org; www.buylocal.org; www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets.

Thank you for choosing to Buy Fresh and Buy Local.

* excerpted from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Barbara Kingsolver

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