Why locally sourced food

Leafy greens, abundant in spring, help our bodies alkalize and detox after a winter of heavier foods. While in summer, water-dense fruits like berries and watermelon and cucumber keep us hydrated.

You see… Nature, relatively left to its own devices, will provide us with what our body needs. Every time you buy produce from someone other than a local producer your money leaves the local economy. By shopping locally you keep money in your area, which helps to sustain local producers and create local jobs. This is vital for our long-term food security, especially with an uncertain energy future and our current reliance on fossil fuels to produce, package, transport and store food.

Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture reports that the average fresh food item travels 1, miles to arrive on our dinner table.

Choosing to buy your food from local sources eliminates the need for fuel-intensive transportation. Where possible, select farmers who follow organic and sustainable farming practices to minimise the environmental impact of your food. When food is closer to the consumer, they have more direct influence on the food that is produced. Take farmers markets. Farmers that sell produce at local markets are likely to sell organic because they want to guarantee high standards to the customers they interact with, while the customers are likely to quiz them on their standards.

This relationship is lacking in supermarkets. Organic means working with nature, not against it. It means higher levels of animal welfare, lower levels of pesticides, no manufactured herbicides or artificial fertilisers and more environmentally sustainable land management — this means more wildlife! However, small, local farms are not always able afford to become certified organic, despite using organic methods.

Sure, these big corporations make jobs for people, but these businesses are likely in other cities, states, and even countries. Not to mention, locally-grown foods get moved on a smaller scale than big corporations: that means less hands. In that case, the money you spend usually goes directly to the people growing it, rather than tons of different moving parents splitting a percentage. If you want to learn more about how your money breaks down when supporting local businesses, do some research on the local economic impact of some businesses.

Does the producer you buy from pay their employees a fair wage? Do they use sustainable practices? Do they practice social justice? When you eat locally, you are eating foods that likely have a higher nutrient count. It makes sense, right? Small farms can grow more variety, which does wonders to protect biodiversity and ultimately, long-term food security.

Also, small farms are usually less brazen with their pesticides. And when you are happy — the deep kind of happiness that comes from giving and receiving harvests and food made with love — you feel powerful enough to change the world. Local Harvest is a user-friendly, online directory that helps Australians everywhere to increase their consumption of fresh, local and sustainably grown food.

I encourage people to convert streets and parks to permaculture, and to develop intensive organic food production at home. Since the passing of Peak Oil, strategies like these support Australian food sovereignty — and climate repair — in a Warming World.

Jerry is also one of the initiators of Grow Local , a Queensland Conservation community project. You can unsubscribe any time. We totally respect your privacy. Want local milk? Why is local important? Tweet Share. There is a growing interest in wanting to know where our food comes from Most of the food we consume in Australia is not only being transported long distances to our plates but what goes into our food and who actually produces it is hidden from us.

Eating locally can be beneficial to both the environment and your health, and in putting your dollars into supporting the local community and farmers directly. The short of it Fresher, tastier and more nutritional food Fair pay for farmers Get in touch with the seasons Enjoy knowing the story behind your food Less energy, emissions and food miles Help change our food systems in the face of peak oil.

Keep me updated Wait What can we call you?