![\"Benefits](\"http:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/eat-local-grown.jpg\")
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About 10 years ago, consumer preferences slowly started shifting\u00a0away from conventionally produced foods to locally grown. The 2007 release of Michael Pollan’s book,\u00a0The Omnivore’s Dilemma<\/em>,\u00a0was largely responsible for this change.\u00a0Once awakened to the consequences of our food choices, many of us\u00a0became much more conscious about what we\u00a0were eating, how it was made, where it came from, and how it got on our\u00a0plates. That book heightened awareness about our dependence on agribusiness and the moral and ecological consequences of our food choices.<\/p>\n Today, consumer demand for locally grown food is greater than ever. More and more, Americans are starting to\u00a0understand that locally grown food is healthier, and that it benefits our local farmers and communities.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at the top 10 reasons to eat locally grown food.<\/p>\n Fresher food tastes better. And produce picked at its peak of freshness\u00a0is far\u00a0more nutritious than food that was picked days or weeks ago.<\/p>\n Commercial produce is often harvested before it is\u00a0fully ripened. Then it has to be washed, packaged, placed on trucks or planes, warehoused and then, finally, transported to the supermarket. By the time it gets to our table, the nutrients have degraded. A lot.<\/p>\n Sadly, most small farmers are struggling financially,\u00a0and many have to take second jobs just to make ends meet. Buying food locally helps farmers earn income and creates local jobs for farm laborers.<\/p>\n When you buy food directly from your farmer or at a farmer’s market, you get to know your farmer personally. You know where your food came from, and how it was grown. You can ask what kind of practices were used. Plus, when the trip from farm to table is short, food is\u00a0less likely to become contaminated.<\/p>\n Different\u00a0crops grow during different\u00a0times of the year. And many crops only grow in certain climates. Strawberries don’t grow in January, and you can’t grow pineapples in Maine. By eating\u00a0food when it’s\u00a0“in season” locally, we live more in rhythm with nature. If you eat a food when it’s growing and being harvested in your area, it will be fresher, tastier, more nutritious, and less expensive.<\/p>\n Also, when we eat by the seasons, we get to enjoy a wider variety of foods during the year. At farmer’s markets, we often\u00a0find novel foods we’ve\u00a0never tried before, or foods we wouldn’t ordinarily buy. But, because those foods\u00a0are fresh and locally grown, we might become intrigued and decide to\u00a0try them.<\/p>\n Commercial processing, warehousing, and distribution of food results in significant waste because it takes a long time for food to get to market. Food rots in transit and has to be thrown away. When buying local, the trip from farm to table is short, leaving little opportunity for food to spoil.<\/p>\n Local farmers take great care of the land and work hard to supplement and enrich the soil using natural methods. Unlike Big Agro, they don’t poison us with pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Local farming\u00a0also encourages diversification of crops. A\u00a0single crop grown over a wide area\u00a0will\u00a0often deplete the soil.<\/p>\n Local foods enable consumers and farmers to connect on a personal level.\u00a0And local farmer’s markets are fun places to meet, \u00a0make new friends, and get to know\u00a0your neighbors better.<\/p>\n The money you spend on locally grown food stays close to home. Farmers and growers reinvest revenue\u00a0in local businesses, and use\u00a0your money\u00a0to pay service providers in your community. Local farmers and farmer’s markets also attract tourists who are especially interested in local\u00a0artisan foods, like cheeses, wines, and olive oil. Tourists also enjoy kid-friendly farms and You-Pick-Farms that allow visitors to pick their own produce.<\/p>\n Much local food is organic or transitionally grown, so the soil doesn’t become contaminated with chemicals that then leech into our water supply. And because locally grown food\u00a0travels short distances, it requires far less fuel to transport and cuts way down\u00a0on the production of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n All over the United States, family farms have been rapidly disappearing. Farming involves hard work, and it won’t make you rich. Consequently, it’s rarely\u00a0attractive to adult children\u00a0who inherit the family farm when their parents pass away. This trend in selling off family farms has made it easy for developers to scoop up\u00a0rich farmland, subdivide it, and build large communities of tract homes.<\/p>\n Buying locally grown food helps these small local farms survive and thrive, and makes farming more attractive to the next generation. Saving farms\u00a0helps preserve our country’s open spaces, which have been dwindling rapidly as suburban sprawl grows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We need our local farmers to thrive instead of hobbling along, barely breaking even. So please, make an effort to support\u00a0the local farmers, farmer’s markets, and food artisans in your community.\u00a0 Eat at\u00a0restaurants that serve\u00a0food that’s been grown locally. Help educate others\u00a0about the benefits of\u00a0locally grown food by sharing this information with your friends. Post relevant articles on social media\u00a0to raise awareness.<\/p>\n You can visit Local Harvest<\/a> to find farms, farmer’s markets, restaurants, and other places\u00a0in your community that\u00a0offer\u00a0locally grown food.\u00a0Another good resource is Eat Local Grown<\/a> \u2014 a crowd-sourced project\u00a0that maintains a directory of local food businesses in your community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About 10 years ago, consumer preferences slowly started shifting\u00a0away from conventionally produced foods to locally grown. The 2007 release of Michael Pollan’s book,\u00a0The Omnivore’s Dilemma,\u00a0was largely responsible for this change.\u00a0Once awakened to the consequences of our food choices, many of us\u00a0became much more conscious about what we\u00a0were eating, how it was made, where it came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,227,151],"tags":[228],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-eating","category-locally-grown-food","category-real-whole-foods","tag-eat-local-grown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}#1 It’s fresher.<\/h2>\n
#2 \u00a0You support local farmers.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
#3 It’s safer.<\/h2>\n
#4 It’s seasonal.<\/h2>\n
#5 It reduces waste.<\/h2>\n
#6\u00a0It builds up the soil.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
#7 It’s good for our community.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
#8 It supports our local economy.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
#9 It’s good for the environment.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
#10\u00a0It protects our land.<\/strong><\/h2>\n