Healthy Eating
Buy Local, Eat Local
The Importance Of Buying Locally Grown Food
BIOLOGICAL
Freshness and taste. Locally-grown fruits and vegetables are usually harvested within 24 hours of being purchased. Produce picked and eaten at the height of ripeness tastes better. Imported produce from distant places can’t be that fresh and is often treated with preservatives to endure a long haul and storage.
VARIETY
Farmers markets can offer produce varieties bred for taste and beauty rather than for shipping and long shelf life.
ECONOMIC
Regional economic vitality. If residents of each Northern BC community spent $10 (of their total grocery dollars) every week on locally grown food, that would amount to $2 million every month invested in local people, local farms, and independent local businesses. Bingo!
POLITICAL
“Homeland Security.” Dependence on far away food sources leaves us vulnerable to supply disruptions, and reduces any real accountability and relationship between producers and consumers. Buying locally grown food is a community-building process that supports diversified farms, producing a wide variety of food crops (not just feed) for local consumption.
FOOD SAFETY
After reading the New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, or seeing the PBS FRONTLINE report on “Modern Meat,” you will realize that food from a global supermarket (dominated by a few corporate giants with considerable influence on governments) is troublesome, and that strengthening local food connections is a practical necessity.
ENERGY CONSERVATION
An average food item travels nearly 2,500 miles before reaching our table here in the North. In contrast, fruit and vegetables sold at the Farmers Markets have traveled 15 miles or so at the most. Buying locally significantly reduces the energy used in packaging, shipping, distributing and retailing.
ETHICAL
A new way of eating. A growing number of people are interested in knowing how their food was grown and who raised it. Did the farmer receive a living wage? Was the land properly cared for? Were pesticides and antibiotics used routinely? Was the working condition of people who processed the meat safe and just? Current food labels are silent about all of these questions. Consumers closer to their food source can find answer to these questions.