Reasons to Eat Locally Grown

Eating "locally-grown" means to include in your diet as much food that is grown within a reasonable radius (say 160 kms or 100 miles) from your home. But why eat locally grown at all? Reasons abound:

1. Every time you buy something from a local producer, you are creating a positive ripple in the local economy. When purchased food is not locally grown, money leaves the community with every transaction. Studies report that dollars spent locally generate 4 times their value in economic spinoff.

2. Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - orchards, farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped. Every fruit or vegetable you buy that was grown in a foreign country gives a local farmer one more reason to rip up his orchard and sell his land to a developer, grow biofuels instead of food, or sell water instead of potatoes. If you want farms and orchards to stay open, you have a responsibility to support them.

3. Every time you grow, catch, or make something yourself instead of having it shipped from half a world away (or traveling 100 kilometres or more yourself to buy it), you are saving fuel and making a positive environmental impact. Estimates on how far the average food travels from pasture to plate range from 2500 to 4000 kilometres.

4. Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, s/he is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket.

5. Small local farms are more likely to grow more interesting varieties, making food more flavorful, protecting biodiversity and preserving a wider agricultural gene pool, an important factor in long-term food security.

6. Purchasing locally-grown food reduces the use of unnecessary packaging.

7. Local fruits and vegetables are riper and fresher. Produce you purchase at the farmer's market, market garden or farmer direct has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but also nutritional value which declines with time.

8. Eating local helps protect you from contamination. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less opportunity to be exposed to harmful toxins.

9. Buying local often means you can speak directly to the producer. You have greater opportunity to find out the producer's pest and weed management styles so you can make informed decisions about the food you eat.

10. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever eaten a tomato picked right off the vine?

11. Buying local food keeps you in touch with the seasons and seasonal traditions. By eating with the seasons, you are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive.

12. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it's the meat, the vegetables or the fruit on your table, knowing where your food comes from is a powerful part of enjoying a meal.