You’ve probably heard me talk about how buying local produce is good for you, but do you know why it is good for you?
1) It tastes better
Local produce tastes better because it is allowed to ripen longer before harvest. Most of the produce in your local grocery store is harvested before full ripeness, irradiated, among other treatments, which affects not only taste, but nutrient content as well.
2) It’s fresher
Local produce has just been picked; it hasn’t been sitting around in a warehouse waiting for pickup and then traveling thousands of miles to get to your local grocery store.
3) It is healthier
Due to the treatments mentioned above, the nutrient content in store bought produce is a lot lower than in locally grown and harvested produce. Our soil is suffering from nutritional depletion; this makes it even more imperative to find produce that has not been treated and is fully ripened before harvest.
4) It costs less
Local produce costs less than its equal counterpart in the grocery store. In some cases, you may pay more per pound for a tomato at a farmer’s market than the grocery store. But in the long run it is still cheaper because that tomato will taste better and pack more nutrition per pound which will massively impact your health.
5) It helps the economy
Shopping locally for anything helps your local economy improve, but shopping with your local farmers will assist to keep a precious resource around for a long time to come. Local farmers are an important part of our economy and keeping them in business helps us all.
6) The food is safer
Three words–food borne illnesses. Those three words are another reason why shopping with local farmers is critical. Just recently sprouts, spinach and Romaine lettuce were all recalled for food borne illness. Bigger does not always mean better. Bigger is harder to control than smaller. You are far more likely to get sick from a corporate farm than from your local mom and pop farm.
