Eating Locally:

            Eating locally is helping the local economy. Farmers on average receive only 20 cents of each food dollar spent, says Ikerd, the rest going for transportation, processing, packaging, refrigeration and marketing. Farmers who sell food to local customers “receive the full retail value, a dollar for each food dollar spent,” he says. Additionally, eating locally encourages the use of local farmland for farming, thus keeping development in check while preserving open space. See the following Ten Reasons for Eating Locally:

10 Reasons to Eat Local Food

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1. Eating local means more for the local economy. According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. When businesses are        not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

2. Locally grown produce is fresher. While produce that is purchased in the supermarket or a big-box store has been in transit or cold-stored for days or weeks, produce that you purchase at your local farmer's market has often been picked within 24 hours of your purchase. This freshness not only affects the taste of your food, but the nutritional value which declines with time.

3. Local food just plain tastes better. Ever tried a tomato that was picked within 24 hours? 'Nuff said.

4. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen. Because the produce will be handled less, locally grown fruit does not have to be "rugged" or to stand up to the rigors of shipping. This means that you are going to be getting peaches so ripe that they fall apart as you eat them, figs that would have been smashed to bits if they were sold using traditional methods, and melons that were allowed to ripen until the last possible minute on the vine.

5. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. In a March 2005 study by the journal Food Policy, it was found that the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic.

6. Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons. By eating with the seasons, we are eating foods when they are at their peak taste, are the most abundant, and the least expensive.

7. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story. Whether it's the farmer who brings apples to market or the baker who makes bread, knowing part of the story about your food is such a powerful part of enjoying a meal.

8. Eating local protects us from bioterrorism. Food with less distance to travel from farm to plate has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.

9. Local food translates to more variety. When a farmer is producing food that will not travel a long distance, will have a shorter shelf life, and does not have a high-yield demand, the farmer is free to try small crops of various fruits and vegetables that would probably never make it to a large supermarket. Supermarkets are interested in selling "Name brand" fruit: Romaine Lettuce, Red Delicious Apples, Russet Potatoes. Local producers often play with their crops from year to year, trying out Little Gem Lettuce, Senshu Apples, and Chieftain Potatoes.

10. Supporting local providers supports responsible land development. When you buy local, you give those with local open space - farms and pastures - an economic reason to stay open and undeveloped.

Visit the Eat Local Challenge website to learn more

www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Eating Organic:

This list is taken from:

Revised Jan. 3, 2007

(For more in-depth information, go to: http://www.thefutureisorganic.net/tenreasprint.htm)

1. Stop Eating Chemicals:

Organic foods must, by law (WSDA) (USDA), be produced without use of pesticides and other synthetic chemicals such as those which are easily detected on conventionally grown fruits, vegetables and grains. "Conventional produce" is the type available in most supermarket produce sections.

2. Protect Your Children:

Children are, as a rule, more vulnerable to toxins than are adults. This is why children especially should be fed an organic diet and taught how to resist junk-food culture. In the aftermath of the Alar scare of the 1980's, a study concluded that the average child is exposed to four times as many cancer causing pesticides in food than are adults, based on the types of foods children are most likely to eat. Food choice can have a substantial effect on a child's future health.

3. Preserve Water Quality and Air Quality:

Water and air are our most important resources. Infiltration of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and other soluble chemicals into surface and groundwater is a major source of concern all across North America. These dangerous synthetic chemicals are found in many cases in significant concentrations even in water supplies now being consumed by millions of people. Some herbicides actually evaporate into the air after application and drift for miles (still having bad effects on plant life!) and some agricultural chemicals bind to dust particles which you breath in during dust storms.

4. Prevent Soil Erosion and Improve Soil Quality:

Across North America, soil is eroding seven times faster than it can be replaced. Organic farmers are bound by law and oath to have a soil building program in place for maintaining or improving the tilth of this precious resource. According to Cornell University, soil erosion costs us about $44 billion a year. Poor cultivation and cultural practices have created a worldwide topsoil crisis.

5. Protect Farm Worker Health:

Farm workers in this country and abroad are exposed to the highest concentrations of agricultural poisons of any segment of the population and the devastation to them and their families is well documented. These are the people who tend and harvest our food, they deserve better. Help in their struggle for a safe work environment and vote with your pocketbook by buying organic foods.

6. Support Small Scale Local Farmers:

Most organic farms are small, independently owned and operated or family farms of less than 100 acres (some are pretty big and there is a troubling trend towards the industrialization and corporatization of organic agriculture that is threatening the integrity of the organic label. By buying locally produced foods, you are keeping local farms viable; you are not contributing to the environmental and social costs of the worldwide transport of foods or supporting a system based on the exploitation of third world labor. You are helping your community attain food security.

7. Save Energy:

Organic farming is accomplished with less energy consumption. Inputs like fertilizer are naturally occurring and require less processing than substances manufactured by huge chemical companies. Organic food generally travels less miles from farm to market saving energy in transport. Many organic farmers incorporate alternative and renewable energy sources into their farming/homesteading systems.

8. Promote bio-diversity:

Many large scale agri-businesses operate by the method of mono-cropping-- the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop, year after year. This depletes the soil of nutrients causing farmers to become more and more dependent on fertilizers. Also, this upsets natures’ pest controls by reducing species variety. Organic growers practice methods and techniques like crop rotation, cover cropping and composting which directly address these problems of modern agriculture by re-learning how to work with nature, not wage combat against her.

9. Organics Aren't Really More Expensive:
Many hidden costs are involved with the buying of conventionally produced food products. These hidden costs include billions of dollars in federal agriculture and energy subsidies favoring big business. Chemical regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal, environmental damage and cleanup, illnesses and hospitalizations are other hidden costs.

10. Organic Foods Taste Better:

Taste is hard to quantify, but science does tell us that organic foods do have higher levels of vitamins and minerals than conventional foods. It only makes sense that food grown in soil that has been nourished and cared for is more nutritious and will end up tasting better.