Shop your local farmers’ markets and pick produce from your state. When you buy food grown close to home, the positive impact is much farther-reaching than your dining room table. Locally grown fruits and vegetables require little energy to bring to market, and nutrients—which peak at the moment of harvest—are preserved. Delicious!
Your supermarket’s stock reflects a global food supply, much of it crossing continents and oceans to arrive at your table. Sound tasty? Look closer: weeks can elapse between the time your Chilean grapes are picked and you get to enjoy them. The average distance food travels between its origin and the market is 1,500 miles. This distance is called “food miles,” and the bigger the number, the more fossil fuels burned to bring that food to market.
Supporting local, small farms also preserves your local landscape. Large producers of mono-crops that warehouse, package and transport food huge distances typically practice unsustainable, industrial-scale farming that relies on toxic pesticides and heavy machinery to turn out high yields quickly and cheaply. This harsh treatment of the land damages topsoil, waterways and wildlife. Smaller producers, on the other hand, typically practice either organic or sustainable farming, and are better stewards of the land because of it.
Take Action / Next Steps
If you want to be sure your produce was grown nearby, shop farmers’ markets weekly during the season. Look up farmers’ markets at: Local Harvest AMS Farmers’ Market Map
Find sustainable food producers by zip code through the Eat Well Guide.
If you can’t get to a farmers’ market, join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group.In exchange for monthly dues, you’ll receive seasonal produce from area producers.
Required as of 2008, country-of-origin labels (COOLs) on produce are helpful to consumers in avoiding products from halfway around the world, but they don’t help us identify products grown on the other side of the country. Starting in September 2008, COOLs will be required on all produce.
Ask your grocer to stock more locally grown and raised food products.
Low-income communities can suffer the most from a lack of locally grown food. The Community Food Security Coalition helps community leaders and activists start up programs, such as community gardens, that provide low-income people access to healthy food.
Did you know that the majority of every dollar you spend on products produced
outside your community supports the economy somewhere else?
Buying from
local producers keeps your money circulating within your community.
Did you know that the bulk of federal farm subsidies go to the largest farms, not small family farms?
Farm subsidies touted by Congress as a way to help
struggling family farmers are instead helping to accelerate their demise, according to the Washington
Post. Buying from small local farmers helps them survive and in turn richly
benefits the community.
Did you know that most U.S. grown fruits and vegetables are shipped from California, Washington and
Florida?
Depending on where you live, the food miles can add up.
Did you know that very few produce items for sale in large supermarket chains come from local
farms?
Supermarket chains prefer to be supplied in bulk by a small number of large
producers.
Did you know that it takes one cup of gasoline per apple
to ship Washington-grown apples to the Midwest?
If Iowans bought apples
grown in their own state, the fossil fuel consumed per apple shipped would drop to 1.7 teaspoons, according to author Paul
Rauber.
Did you know that buying locally produced food
protects biodiversity?
Industrial producers select crops among a small group
of resilient varieties that can withstand harvesting machinery and long journeys. This limits the biodiversity of our food
supply. Producers that handpick produce and transport only short distances are restricted only by regional factors in what
they can grow.
Did you know that sustainable family farms
help keep the local environment clean?
Land stewardship that involves
protecting soil and water and planting crops that absorb carbon dioxide emissions is an asset to the environmental health of
any community.
4. Rauber, Paul. “Miles to Go Before You Eat.” Sierra. May/June 2006: 35.
5. Gaul, Gilbert M., Cohen, Sarah and Morgan, Dan. ”Federal Subsidies Turn Farms Into Big Business.” The WashingtonPost. 21 December 2006: Section A, Page 1.
