When you buy local food you support small farms and your community’s ability to produce food. Often, when purchasing food directly from a farmer or at a local market, the farmer is able to receive a higher price for their products, directly contributing to their ability to stay in business, promote sustainability and preserve farmland.
Shake the hand that feeds you.
Climate Change & Food Miles
British Columbia-based FarmFolk/CityFolk explains that currently ‘the average North American meal travels 2,400 km to get from field to plate and contains ingredients from 5 countries in addition to our own – that’s a lot of “food miles” – a term coined in 1994 by Britain’s ‘SUSTAIN’ organization’. A 2002 Worldwatch Report found an average North American meal made with ingredients from a supermarket takes 4 to 17 times more petroleum consumption in transport than the same meal made from local ingredients.
The Community Farm Alliance reports just 2% of farms produce 50% of all US agricultural products. Loss of crop diversity, soil depletion and greenhouse gases from transportation and industrialized farming methods will only increase if larger scale farms continue to take the place of smaller, decentralized farms. Decentralizing farming is better for the environment with food having to travel less distance from farmer to buyer. Smaller farms also place less strain on local water and land resources.
Nutritional Value
Local food spends less time being transported, handled and packaged. FarmFolk/CityFolk explains how, ‘… 24 to 48 hours after harvest, 50% - 89% of vitamin C is lost from leafy vegetables. Bagged spinach loses about half its folate and carotenoids after being stored in refrigeration for just 4 days’. Food traveling 2,400 km from field to plate is going to have much less nutritional value than food purchased at your local farm stand hours after being harvested.
Those who control our food control our lives.
Sustainability
The food processing industry in the United States uses 10 calories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food it produces, according to the Community Farm Alliance. With so much increased awareness about climate change, the eventual loss of oil as a cheap source of fossil fuel and an increase in unstable weather, industry experts predict food is only going to be increasingly difficult to grow. Food security is made much more vulnerable by the fact that too few people are producing the majority of the food crops.
Everything from a community garden plot to a small container garden on the balcony increases sustainability and reduces greenhouse gases. Food Not Lawns author Heather Flores believes growing food is a radical act. She reminds us ‘Those who control our food control our lives’.
Preserving Land For Future Generations
Preserving land for future generations is also part of the local food paradigm. Local farms protect fertile land that may otherwise be used for development. If farmers are not able to support themselves by farming their land then often they are forced to sell. If farmland is not preserved by individuals or an agricultural land protection body there is no guarantee the usable land will be available for future generations.
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