Why Buy Local
There are countless reasons to buy local food. From mouth-watering fruit, produce at the peak of freshness, delicious meals made with love and local ingredients, to meeting the people who grow your food. Here are ten reasons why to support farmers markets.
1. Preserves Community
Local businesses, new and old, are the foundation for a community’s economic security. When locals buy from each other they strengthen their local economy which promotes economic diversity and, in turn, helps create a unique experience for locals and visitors alike. Buying from a local farm gives insight into the centuries-old relationship people have had with the land – learning seasonal varieties of produce, seeing effects of local climate, and understanding the kind of lifestyle that is necessary to grow what one sells, to name a few.
2. Supports Local Families
Farm families and family-owned businesses are directly supported when you buy from them. Your choice to support them keeps their families on the land and operating their storefronts, thus prolonging their contributions to the local economy and culture.
3. Local Businesses and Farms Are Safe
When store owners and farmers live in your area they are not anonymous. You can drive by and see where your goods are made or where your produce is grown. Being able to stop by and talk to your farmer or tradesman, instills confidence and facilitates learning directly from those who have put their time and energy into making an idea come to fruition through determination and hard work.
4. Buying Local Produce Preserves Genetic Diversity
Commercialized agriculture has selected plant varieties for their shelf life and packing resiliency, factors that emphasize transport and storage, not variety and nutrition. Local farms do not operate on the scale of commercial agricultural businesses so they are free to grow and propagate all kinds of plant variants which add variety to their harvest seasons and provide an array of nutrients – and of course a variety of colors on your plate!
5. Buying Local Produce Maintains the Agricultural Landscape
Purchasing from a farm helps keep farmers and their families on the land that could be used to produce local goods for local people, while keeping away dense urban development. When real estate corporations and banks set their sights on available land, more often than not it results in squeezing profits from the community through consumer goods in the form of malls, dense housing developments, and space for out-of-state franchises that leave out the local entrepreneurs and farmers from establishing their foundations in their own community.
6. Buying Local Produce Benefits the Environment and Wildlife
Farming is closely linked to land stewardship and this kind of attention to the environment includes maintaining and improving soil quality and minimizing the negative impact farming can have on the land. Development fractures wildlife habitats while farms act as easements between wildlife and towns that may provide temporary habitats for animals migrating or simply passing through depending on the farm’s design.
7. Buying Local Invests in the Future
Supporting local businesses and farms today, ensures that there will be local businesses and farms to inspire and support the entrepreneurs and farmers of tomorrow.
8. Local Produce Have Increased Nutritional Content & Flavor
Local produce is sold around or at its peak, as opposed to commercial crops that are picked early, sit in warehouses and travel long distances in vehicles before you see them on the refrigerated shelves. When a fruit or vegetable spends more time maturing before being picked, it has a much greater chance of developing more nutrients than being picked early.
9. Local Products Are Truer to Their Source
Produce grown from a local farmer means you’re eating from the land you live on or near. Eating what’s grown in your area or state comes with the pride of knowing that your food comes with a significantly smaller carbon footprint than what you would find at most supermarkets and grown and handled by someone that is part of your local or state economy. With farmstead products like cheese, there’s no need to add preservatives for shelf-life and storage so the product that came straight from the producer is purer than what you would find at a brand-name grocer.
10. Become Aware of What Your Land Can Grow and What Your Neighbor Can Make
Buying locally makes you more aware of what goods, services, and food is available from local people. The more you know about what your area can accomplish the better consumer choices you can make to help you live a more nutritious and sustainable lifestyle.