Why Eat Local? 10 Lucky Reasons.
At a farmers’ market, most local produce has been picked inside of 24 hours. It comes to you ripe, fresh, and with its full flavor, unlike supermarket food that may have been picked weeks or months before.
2. Know what you’re eating.
Buying food today is complicated. What pesticides were used? Is that corn genetically modified? Was that chicken free range or did it grow up in a box? People who eat locally find it easier to get answers. Many build relationships with farmers whom they trust. And they can also drive out to the farms and see for themselves.
3. Meet your neighbors.
Local eating is social. People shopping at farmers’ markets have 10 times more conversations than those who shop at the supermarket. Join a community garden and you’ll actually meet the people you pass on the street.
4. Get in touch with the seasons.
When you eat locally, you eat what’s in season. You’ll remember that cherries are the taste of summer. Even in winter, comfort foods like squash soup and pancakes just make a lot more sense than flavourless cherries from the other side of the world.
5. Discover new flavours.
Ever tried artichokes? How about asparagus, quail eggs, cranberries, or fiddleheads? These are just a few of local products. Count the types of apples of Ontario on offer at your supermarket. Maybe two? Small farms are keeping alive more varieties.
6. Explore your home.
Visiting local farms is a way to be a tourist on your own home turf, with plenty of stops for snacks.
7. Save the world.
A study found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country.
8. Support small farms.
We discovered that many people from all walks of life dream of working the land–maybe you do, too. In areas with strong local markets, the family farm is alive.
9. Give back to the local economy.
Buying from local food producers keeps the dollar at home, and everybody profits.
10. Be healthy.
We should eat more vegetables and fewer processed products. And more fresh food at its nutritional peak. Eating from farmers’ markets and cooking from scratch will make all the family healthy and happy!
No comments:
Post a Comment