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Why Buy Local?
Healthy Farms = Healthy Food = Healthy People = Healthy Communities
Here’s the tops 10 list of reason to buy local.
(Adapted from 2001 Growing for Market)
1. Locally grown food tastes better. Food grown in your own community was probably picked within the past day or two. It’s crisp, sweet and loaded with flavor. Produce trucked or flown in from California or Chili is much older. Several studies have shown that the average distance food travels from “farm to plate” is 1,500 miles, causing sugars to turn into starches, plant cell shrinkage, and loss of vitality.
2. Buying local spurs economic growth. The presence of a farmer’s market or community garden often inspires neighboring areas to create their own, and the possibilities for start-up food businesses, including bakeries, grocers, canneries, and caterers multiply with growing availability of local food. Economists use the term “multiplier theory” to explain the impact of each dollar spent locally. If you spend a dollar locally, it impacts 3 – 7 different local businesses before it leaves the area.
3. Local food preserves genetic diversity. In the modern agricultural system, varieties are often chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously, pack and ship easily, and for an ability to have a long shelf life in the store. Many large producers stick to the handful of hybrid varieties fit those categories, so there is little genetic diversity in the plants grown. Local farms, in contrast, grow a huge number of varieties to provide a long season of harvest and many heirloom varieties are passed along to the next generation.
4. You know the name of the person who grows it and how it was grown. When shopping locally, you can find the label you trust. Local growers provide what you want your families to eat, and locally grown produce is great for after-school snacks, office treats, fund-raisers and sports concessions.
5. Local food supports local farm families. This means farm families could afford to stay on the farm, doing the work they love to produce a fresh, local product for you.
6. Local food builds community. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower. Knowing the farmers gives you insight in the season, the weather, and the miracle of raising food. In many cases, it gives you access to a farm where your children and grandchildren can go to learn about nature and agriculture. Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.
7. Local food preserves open spaces. As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. 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.
8. Local food keeps your taxes in check. Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas suburban development costs more than it generates in taxes, according to several studies. On average, for every $1 in revenue raised by residential development, governments must spend $1.17 on services, thus requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue raised by farm, forest, or open space, governments spend 34 cents on services.
9. Local farmers can tell you know how they grow. You can find out easily if the seeds are genetically modified or not, what kinds of pesticides were or weren't used and what practices the farmer uses to raise crops and keep land healthy.
10. Local food is about supporting the future. A local grower is the best option for some residents to access fresh fruits and vegetables when they lack resources to travel. Supporting your local farmer can help ensure there will be farms in your community tomorrow and that all citizens can eat healthier food consistently.
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