Eat Local

When we go to the grocery store, most of us don’t think twice before grabbing the best looking tomatoes and putting them in the cart. Some go the extra mile to buy organic, but still just stop there. If you add a bit of extra time and effort, you can find food that tastes better, is better for the environment, and is likely better for you. Just go find a local grower to buy your produce.

Eating local fruits and veggies helps ensures you receive fresher produce. Most supermarkets ship food from an average of 1500 miles away. Shipping food that far can take up to a week. Local food gets to you faster, often the day after it is harvested. That means, by buying local produce, you could have food that lasts up to seven days longer before rotting. Produce that lasts longer saves you time by needing to shop less frequently, and money because you throw less away.

Besides taking a lot of time, shipping food long distances is also detrimental to the environment. While it is done in bulk, driving or flying food from the other side of the country (or even the world) takes lots and lots of gas. Buying local foods over an extended period of time is just one way to use less fossil fuel and reduce your carbon footprint.

When you purchase food at your local chain supermarket, you are sending your money to farmers hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away. By buying local produce, you are giving your business to your neighbors and supporting your local economy. Just like your country thrives from local business, so does your city or town.

Don’t know where to find local produce? There are actually several places you can go to find goods grown right in your neighborhood.

The first, and usually the simplest, is the local co-op. While you’ll often have to pay a fee to join the local co-op, you can usually buy many of the items you’d find in a normal grocery store. Plus, you’ll often pay less and, if sales are good, many co-ops give money back to members.

If you’re a morning person, you can always check out the local farmers' market for the freshest selection of fruits and veggies. Most towns have at least one. They’re usually held early in the morning at a central location. The biggest problem with this is that you can’t just hop down to the store any time you want. However, you’re buying straight from the farmers so you know exactly what you’re getting.

Community supported agriculture programs, or CSAs, are a great way to get fresh, local produce delivered right to your door. In a CSA, you pay some of a farmer’s operating costs before the season starts, and after the crops start coming, the farmer pays you back with fresh vegetables. This is convenient and is better financially for the farmer, but you don’t always get to pick what kind of veggies you’re going to have delivered or when.

So go online, or check in your local yellow pages, and find yourself some produce that is better for you, your family, your local farmers, and the environment. Go buy local.

In fact, I have a friend who owns an organic produce delivery business. Check it out at WildlyOrganic.