Lots of reasons to buy local food

With rising fuel costs and the growing popularity of healthy living, many are looking to the consumption of local foods as the answer.
While people who live in a major city may not have the best access to locally-grown produce or meat, Fort Frances is in a prime location with the land and the resources sitting nearby.
“Obviously, buying locally reduces gas emissions and reduces the need for fuel so you’re not polluting the environment,” noted Jeannette Cawston, the district’s rural agricultural co-ordinator.
“A lot of our food comes up on planes and trucks, which use fuel—often diesel—and that pollutes the environment.”
Recently, there’s been a push to begin making fuel using grain and corn. It is supposed to be cleaner, and it aims to get around the fact the world is squandering its non-renewable resources.
But this idea is not supported by all, especially local farmer Mark Gerber.
“You know it takes a lot of grain and corn to make just a little bit of fuel,” he noted. “It is scary when half the world is starving and we are using food to turn into fuel to transport our food all around.
“I think there’s got to be a better way.
“Buying locally is a great way to save fuel and I think this is especially important when we are using things like grain and corn for this,” Gerber stressed.
Not transporting food across the country helps protect the environment and helps save grain and corn from being turned into fuel instead of harvesting it as a food source.
As well, keeping food close keeps the nutrients in the produce.
“When [seed catalogues] are catering to commercial growers, they stress shelf life, transportability, and durability—tough skins and those sorts of things—whereas home gardens and local producers don’t have to worry about all of that,” said Rick Neilson, a director of the Clover Valley Farmers’ Market here.
“When it is fresh, you get it when it is at its peak,” he stressed. “It’s not in transit for a week before you get it.”
Cawston added the fresher the food, the more nutrients that remain in it.
This principle is the base for the new popular diet that recommends only eating what is grown within 100 miles of you. If it is that close, it means it is that much fresher and retains that many more nutrients.
There also are benefits for sticking to locally-grown when it comes to meat. It isn’t frozen and stored, just like with vegetables, and local and commercial grade meats usually are handled differently.
Susan Peters of Sunrise Meat and Sausage indicated commercial packers tend to cut the meat quickly and then put it in vacuum packs, allowing it to dry like that.
Local butchers, on the other hand, will dry age it by hanging it and then package it.
“Personally, myself, I think dry aging beef is better than aging it under vacuum,” Peters said. “Once beef is vacuum-packed, it has a different smell and I don’t know how well it really ages like that.
“Dry aging is more natural, of course, too.”
Natural is deemed a bonus when purchasing any kind of food. Many people, for instance, are concerned with the added preservatives and pesticide use on their food.
When buying locally, there is that much more assurance in the practices of the supplier.
“I think a lot of people have a concern of how animals get fed, what they get fed, and how they are being raised,” noted Peters. “Basically, they want to have something to eat that is good and not given all kinds of growth hormones.”
Given the farmers’ market is the major outlet for local farmers to sell their produce, Neilson said consumers often can speak with the grower and get their questions answered about what they are going to buy.
They even can develop a personal relationship with them and begin to trust their product.
“I buy bananas and it says they are from, I don’t know where, maybe Ecuador?” noted Gerber. “I sometimes wonder what’s going on with that banana. I have no idea what has gone into that banana.
“Best things about buying locally is working with local people, keeping hard-earned money in the local economy, and this way the consumer can see the where, what, and how in the produce,” he continued.
“When you can come and see [the farmer] pull it from the ground and prepare it for you to buy, when you know the man who grew it—it just makes good sense to buy locally.”
About the only thing better than buying locally is growing vegetables for yourself. This cuts out the middle man and gives the grower the satisfaction of producing something.
However, Gerber explained that to really grow a proper garden, many people lack the space on their land. So, to still enjoy food fresh from a garden, buy locally.
“You don’t have to travel far to get it and if you want, you can actually watch them pull it out and get it ready for you,” he remarked.