LOCAL FOOD

Why eat local?

I am becoming a "LOCAVORE", which is someone who eats food produced within a one hundred mile radius of home. Why? Local food tastes better! Local food can be shipped to you the same day it is picked, so it is fresh.

Local food is better for the environment! By eating local, you save your food from being transported to distribution centers, processors, and retailers far away.
Local food supports your community's economy! Buying local food supports local farms and keeps farms in your community.

Every day millions of Americans venture to their local grocery stores in hopes of obtaining ingredients for breakfasts, dinners, and snacks. They turn over shiny green apples and squeeze ripe, red tomatoes. Rarely do they stop to ask how their food was produced. Whose hands touched their apples? Where was their carrot pulled from the ground? A local food system changes this because it gives people the opportunity to take an active role in the production of their food such programs as U-Pick or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Local food systems keep farms in our neighborhoods and sustain the local economy by keeping funds generated from agriculture within the community. They also cut down on pollution by reducing gas emissions from transportation. Most importantly, local food just tastes better!

Eating local will put a face to our food. By supporting local endeavors like farms, CSA’s, and farm stands, we will know who produced our apple, our pepper, and our carrot. Eating local ensures a connection between us as the consumer and the product.

This may prove challenging! I live in New England, land of long winters and short growing seasons. What food will there be for us to use, though the year, that is produced within that one hundred mile radius? I hope to connect with like-minded others, in books, on websites, and in local communities, to learn and to support this worthwhile effort.