Buying your food locally

[John]

For those of you looking to improve your health, support your local economy, aid the environment and generally eat the tastiest food you can, I highly recommend reading this article. I've been buying a good portion of my weekly groceries from farmers' markets for awhile now. Every Saturday morning I head to Shaker Square, where 40 local farmers have set up tents displaying their wares. I'll stock up on all kinds of fruit, vegetables, poultry, whole-grain breads, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The quality far surpasses the stuff shipped from wherever to the supermarkets. Buying local makes sense for a number of reasons:

1. Accountability: You know exactly where the food is coming from, making it much easier for you to avoid those tainted food scares you're always reading about.
2. Freshness: While the food you buy at the supermarket has likely been sitting in cold storage for days, the food you buy from farmers may have been picked just that morning. The taste difference is hard to explain; try it and you'll see what I mean.
3. Unique foods: While you'll find more foods overall at the supermarket, you're likely to find delicious foods you've never even heard of at your local farmers' market. Just this week I discovered an exquisite ramp pesto that I used as the base for a homemade chicken and vegetable pizza. I wouldn't even know what a "ramp" was if I was confined to the supermaket.
4. Environment: Ever wonder how food gets to the supermarket? Trucks and planes, and lots of them. That means gasoline being burned and fumes being exhausted. Farmers make a much shorter trip to the market and thus leave a much smaller environmental footprint.
5. Economy: When you buy from a local farmer, he's likely to turn around and spend that money locally. That's good for the community. You're also helping to keep locals who work on farms employed. The more dollars you can keep within your neighborhood, the better.
6. Education: Don't know how to pick out a good melon? Intimidated by all the different kinds of beef cuts? Just ask the farmer selling them; he'll be happy to answer your questions.
7. Camaraderie: As you become a regular, farmers will learn your name and begin talking to you more personably. It's an entirely different experience from the bored checkout clerks you'll encounter at the supermarket.

Now as the article points out, you're probably not going to be able to do 100% of your shopping at the market. Fish, for instance, is a healthy staple of any diet and there's little to none to be had at any of the farmers' markets in my area, so I turn to the supermarket for that. Still, I would estimate that I'm able to fill about 60% of my weekly shopping needs through local farmers.

The other thing to bear in mind is the seasonal nature of the markets. We've grown used to having all foods available to us at all times of the year. That may be convenient but it's hardly ideal. If you're living in a cold-whether environment, you're not supposed to have strawberries in December. Sure, you can buy them at the supermarket. They've been bred to be shipped (meaning they were picked too early), put on ice, trucked in from California and finally, days after being picked, made available to you. By that time they're already decaying and far from fresh. Wait until strawberry season in the summer, though, and you'll be treated to a taste sensation that will have you questioning how you ever put up with supermarket berries. Instead of getting your strawberries year-round, move on to a new seasonal fruit when strawberries go out of season. You'll be getting variety and freshness at the same time. It's a win-win.

[Matt]

I enjoy the points you make here. The one that catches my eye is the environment.

Now, I am not exactly the most healthy eater. Part of that is the job I do. That and the fact that my body would probably reject a vegetable. Needless to say, I am not a vegetarian and doubt I could ever become one. I do, however, have real concerns about the environment. And recently I hear a figure, of which I can't verify it's accuracy, but it still gave me pause to think. For every 100 pounds of beef that makes it to the market, it takes 8 gallons of fuel. That's when you consider the cost of fertilizers, etc, to produce the grain to feed the cattle, then actually getting the beef to market.

There was a lot else said on the show I was listening to, but the real point was that eating healthier actually will have a very profound and positive effect on the environment.

(And trucks use diesel, not gasoline.....)

[Leones]

The other thing to bear in mind is the seasonal nature of the markets. We've grown used to having all foods available to us at all times of the year. That may be convenient but it's hardly ideal. If you're living in a cold-whether environment, you're not supposed to have strawberries in December. Sure, you can buy them at the supermarket. They've been bred to be shipped (meaning they were picked too early), put on ice, trucked in from California and finally, days after being picked, made available to you. By that time they're already decaying and far from fresh. Wait until strawberry season in the summer, though, and you'll be treated to a taste sensation that will have you questioning how you ever put up with supermarket berries. Instead of getting your strawberries year-round, move on to a new seasonal fruit when strawberries go out of season. You'll be getting variety and freshness at the same time. It's a win-win.

Well technically you're not supposed to have strawberries at all. They didn't even exist until the 18th century, so I'm not sure how you can define what is ideal and what is not, given that at this point in time everything is modified to a certain degree. Also a large part of the environmental benefit gained by eating local is negated by the fact that it means that the food was (most likely) not grown in the most efficient of places. Other than those two points I think you're pretty much spot on though, it comes down to supporting local farmers versus large corporations with the usual consequences involved.