Mephistona

Eat Local

Written on August 3, 2009 – 1:16 pm | by admin

Several nation-wide food contamination crises have brought a welcome focus to the small but growing “localvore” movement.  Localvores are consumers who make a concentrated effort to buy produce and other farm products that have been grown and processed in their local area.  The movement has spawned non-profit organizations and packed seasonal farm markets with an increasing number of customers.

Buying local, especially directly from farmers, addresses the food-related health scares in recent years by developing a direct relationship between consumers and providers.  Farmers are held accountable in their own communities, and have the opportunity to educate their customers about their growing, harvesting, cleaning, and packaging methods.

It also reduces the carbon footprint caused by food production and distribution; industrially produced food sometimes travels thousands of miles from farm to table, requiring not only fuel for transportation, but for refrigeration & more packaging also.

And localvores insist regionally produced foods are tastier, too.

It’s unlikely that buying locally will completely replace food from industrialized farming any time in the foreseeable future, as consumers will always want certain foods that can’t be grown in their area. But giving independent local farms a larger role makes sense—it’s healthier, environmentally sound, and strengthens communities.