Local Food is Healthier, Tastier, and Kinder to the Environment
Eat more locally-sourced food! Why? See below for several good reasons. How? We’ve put together a guide to our Local Food Resources to help you navigate all the great places to find great food—grown, processed, and distributed locally. Check it out!
Many folks have asked “Why is local food so important?” Here are some simple yet important answers to this question.
Local Food Supports Good Health: Local Food is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious. Freshness, taste, and nutrition are compromised when food travels long distances. Local farmers provide the opportunity to purchase and enjoy the most delicious and most nutritious food available.
Local Food Supports Food Security: By purchasing locally, we support a resilient and secure food system that at all times provides sufficient access to safe, nutritious food that meets the dietary needs and preferences of everyone in our community.
Local Food Promotes Food Safety: Smaller batches and fewer steps between you and your food’s source means a reduction in the possibility of contamination.
Local Food Builds Resilient Local Economy: Local economies are growing as more and more people recognize the value of supporting businesses within a 50 mile radius of where they live. The money local famers earn is reinvested into a resilient local economy web.
Local Food Is Environmentally Friendly: If we purchase our food locally, we reduce the amount of fuel used to transport food across the country or around the world, thus reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere. In addition, local famers rarely package their produce is excess plastic that is likely to end up in a landfill.
Local Food Preserves Open Space: Small, local farms allow for pockets of land to remain free from building development. In addition, land used for agriculture has less storm water run-off than land that has been covered in asphalt and buildings.
Local Food Builds Community: Purchasing locally gives us a sense of place and belonging, and enriches our connection to our community.
