One of the fastest growing trends in the eco-friendly community is to buy/eat local. Many consumers buy, buy and buy without a thought for HOW the product got to it’s final destination which brought about the local food or slow food movement. Sometimes buying locally is not as option but when it comes to most foods on our table we can make a great impact by refusing the conventional system and buying locally. Forgo the 1000′s of miles food is transported, the poor quality at picking, artificial ripening, chemical anti-spoiling agents, the glossy waxes added and not to mention packaging. It’s easy to see how just one meal a week/day grown locally can have an impact on reducing your carbon footprint. But local is such a broad term, local in relation to what is the key here. Let’s explore buying local.
100 foot diet
This diet is essentially the home grown diet. With the recent increase in home food gardening, many eco sites are issuing challenges to eat one homegrown meal a week. I know for our household a significant impact is had on our carbon footprint and budget when we run out of oranges/grapefruits on our 3 citrus trees. Orange juice is only truly fresh when you pick the oranges from your own tree and squeeze it immediately, and the taste is divine. From garden to table is what we’re striving for here. Remember the barter system too. Do you have a surplus of zucchini (trust me most gardeners do!) and your neighbor has tomatoes? Why not trade? A great by-product of this method of eating is that children are much more likely to eat vegetables they have had a hand in growing themselves! Bonus!
Farmers Markets
More and more farmers markets are popping up in malls and parking lots throughout the country. Local farmers get together at a city assigned spot and hold a market stalls with fresh local produce. This can include fruits, vegetables, cheese, pickled products, organic produce, eggs and much more. Supporting your local farmers market means you get the freshest produce possible whilst supporting people in your local area. Almost all the Farmers Markets are outdoors, and many have “seasons” depending on the location. Here in Southern California our Farmers market is open March – November on Friday afternoons at the local city mall parking lot.
CSA
For more than 20 years Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a great way for consumers to buy local seasonal food direct from a farmer. The basics are that the farmer offers a share of their harvest to community members. Typically this is a box of vegetables or other farm products on a weekly or sometimes bi-weekly basis. This is great for the farmer as they know that the crops they are growing are already essentially earning them money. The consumers get to ask questions about crops, and get to know directly where their food is coming from. SOme CSA’s offer a delivery service, others you collect the produce yourself from the farm either way a great way of getting fresh and nutritious dense food!
Farm direct
Many smaller farms are seeing the benefits of having their own farm stand within the farm grounds. The stall sells produce picked fresh from the farm fields, and other farm products such as eggs, milk and honey. All produced locally. Another service farms are offering is pick your own produce, where you head out into the fields and pick your own produce! This is especially popular with seasonal fruits like strawberries, or seasons like fall for pumpkin picking.
For Farmers markets, farms, or CSA in your local check our your local paper or visist http://www.localharvest.org
