Preferring local food means supporting farmers, environment, and the health of your loved ones and you.

With growing emphasis on food safety concerns in the food we eat, people are increasingly concerned about the quality and nature of the food they buy. Given the lack of visibility to consumers on the food preservatives, genetically modified crops and pesticides issues. It becomes increasingly important for you to choose foods which are locally grown. Preferring locally grown foods for your diet is very important for the environment, it helps farmers to get a better price and most importantly it is good for your health.

Here are a few strong reasons you might want to consider adding more local food to your diet.

  • The best part about locally grown food is that it will have less impact on the environment. If you prefer buying food from a long distance, then be aware that the food will be shipped from far distances which leads to a big carbon footprint. Buying locally grown vegetables or fruits means that you are contributing to reducing carbon emission, pollution, and habitat loss. Buying locally produced food helps in fighting global warming by eliminating the need for all that fuel-guzzling transportation.
  • Local foods are fresher, clean and offer great taste. This is because local food takes very minimal time to reach your plate. Just imagine a food traveling by truck, plane, and ship after multiple handlings reaching your plate. This travel time reduces the taste, nutrition and you will be finally consuming a tasteless, nutritionless food.
  • Local foods ensure food safety, when you buy food from the local market you know who produced it and how it is grown. There are fewer chances that you’re known farmer will add pesticide during cultivation.
  • Local food ensures your local economy prospers. Yes, when you start preferring local food you help local farmers. The number of transactions which the food gets into before reaching you will be less and the farmer will get the maximum pie of the market price ensuring farmer profitability.

The food that you purchase in the air-conditioned supermarket often has been in transit for days or weeks or traveled over 1000 miles, while produce from your local farmer’s market has often been harvested the same day and sold to you the same day. Local food helps in keeping the freshness and helps in maintaining nutritional value.

We hope that you will now prefer more of local foods.

Image Source: dnaindia, thinkstock