One of the most exciting and promising food trends currently sweeping the nation is local food. Local food is grown locally, shipped to local markets, and sold to people no more than 25-50 miles from its origin. This trend is making big waves in the food world and it has many people asking: is local food worth all the hype?
Many people believe that local food is inherently better. Here are a handful of reasons why we think locally grown food is so much better for you than nationally grown food.
Tastier and Fresher
First of all, locally grown food is much fresher than food shipped across the country. Since it can only be grown seasonally and isn't pumped full of pesticides and preservatives, locally grown food is almost always picked and
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In laboratory tests, they shower denser and more active concentrations of nutrients, with fewer instances of nutrient deterioration and destruction.
This higher nutrition value is linked inherently to its freshness. Nationally grown food often sits around warehouses and on store shelves for weeks and even months at a time. This waiting period causes its nutritional value to plummet to very low levels.
Locally grown food hasn't had time to lose its nutritional value. It is basically hand-delivered to you fresh out of the ground. As a result, you can cook it and experience the full range of nutritional benefits that you deserve.
Fewer Pesticides
Big-business high-profit farms often use an excessive amount of pesticides to control the insect infestations on their farms. While this may result in somewhat healthier food, it exposes you and your family to a wide variety of health risks. And contrary to the rumors big business farms are spreading, pesticides are more harmful than natural food carcinogens.
Small, local farmers are usually less aggressive with pesticides and often prefer all-natural and organic pest control methods. At the very least, they can't afford to douse their food in nasty sounding chemicals
Locavores argue that food travelling long distances before being consumed declines in nutrition as antioxidants and nutrients decay — meaning that food which travels less distance (and is therefore eaten faster) is better for your health. However, Marion Nestle (as quoted by Alisa Smith and J.B. McKinnon) thinks that the nutrition argument isn’t based in science. According to her, “a person making smart choices from the global megamart can easily meet all the body’s needs”, and “there will be nutritional differences, but they’ll be marginal” (Source B). It’s clearly not unhealthy to eat locally grown foods, and they may even be better for your health. However, the benefits of eating freshly picked food may not be as great as locavores claim they are.
In “On Buying Local” Katherine Spriggs shares her views on the buying local products is better than the imported items for positive environment and local industrial impact. The author explains about the benefits of buying local and their advantages on the local economy and other fields. She highlights some views of the products which can be good for small farms and small rural economics. The argument given by the writer is that small farms are totally opposite than the large farms as they grow crops according to the seasons. Moreover, local buying has negative effects also as it hurts the poor workers like if everyone buying locally then people avoid the global market and the workers work in global markets can lose their jobs also. On the
Global warming, pollution, and dwindling fossil fuels will always be the conservational problems if nobody starts to buy local grown foods. Katherine Spriggs, author of the essay, “On Buying Local,” explains how having a large variety of foods at all times of the year is not worth the negative effects in the communities and their economies (Spriggs 92). As a community, many environmental challenges are being faced; Buying local will help bring advantages to not only the environment, but also the small towns and the
America’s vast food supply has increased. Foods that were once hard to come by can be found in almost all the grocery stores across the nation. In the article “What’s Eating America”, by Michael Pollan, who is a professor of journalism, explains how the bounty of food came about. He writes about the creation of synthetic fertilizer and how it was used to fertilize crops and essentially make all the foods today. He writes about the harmful effects that are occurring as a result of the chemically made fertilizer. In another article called written by Katherine Spriggs, a student from Stanford University, she writes about the benefits of buying local versus becoming dependent on the import of food. She feels that buying from local farms
Finally, in the book The End of Food, by Paul Roberts, the author displays the impracticality of the local food movement. When discussing how much of a poor fit a locavore food system is in the modern United States, Roberts states “...in the United States, 80 percent of us live in large, densely populated urban areas, usually on the coast, and typically hundreds of miles, often thousands of miles, from the major centers of food production”. This exhibits how eating locally would be a
Buying local is the new slogan of producers and sellers selling their foods in the food market. There are a few stances that can be taken such as not bothering to care about where the food came from, getting what can be purchased within reason, and the extreme locavore. Although eating local and organic is desirable, it is improbable to create a sustainable lifestyle with the given difficulties.
The customers that buy from local sustainable farms know how their food is grown and harvested. At the Polyface farm Joel does not have walls on his slaughter house, this way people can come and see how their next meal is killed in a humane way. The people “don’t need USDA to ensure that the meat they’re buying has been humanely and cleanly processed,”(208) because they can watch with their own eyes how the meat is slaughtered. Industrial industries protest that selling produce locally can not get food to everyone around the US. Shipping produce across the country effects the foods taste. Also when customers go to the far, to pick out their own food they get the produce fresh and local. Local farmers on sustainable farms will make a bigger profit out of their produce because they do not have to put all their money into buying chemicals and fertilizers, this is good for the produce and farmers.
The first reason why the local sustainable food chain has the potential to feed all the people of America because it’s healthier for the consumer. “Consumer’s get anything from fresh fruit
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2011 Consumer Expenditure Survey, each year millions of americans visit grocery stores, spending an average of $8,315, buying food to feed themselves and their families. However, how many of these americans stop to think of the where this food came from, how it was produced, or the impact that this food has on our environment? On Buying Local, is a persuasive essay written by Kathrine Spriggs, that explores some of these questions, and addresses many points of interest regarding the ideas and benefits of buying locally produced food.
Hi, Ella! Kliman addresses many pros and cons of buying local foods! Just to name a few, Kilman begins by explaining that "local reduced our 'carbon footprint'" because trucks do not have to travel as far to deliver fresh produce (Kilman 67). We are made to believe that local foods change the system entirely, however, this is not really the case. Kilman provided a statistic that "local and organic foods currently make up 3 percent of food consumption in America" (Kilman 67). In the long run, this small amount of percentages does not do as much as consumers think it does. People often argue that local food is fresher and overall better, but Kilman says that "local is not inherently fresher, nor is it inherently better" (Kilman 68). Since the
Food that is grown locally is significantly fresher than what can be found in a supermarket where the “fresh” food is stored for weeks. These foods that are stored can lose lots of nutritional value quickly, making locally grown foods healthier and fresher. Professor Marion Nestle said that the 100-mile diet is,
But in reality in a lot of places the local food comes from feedlots and farms that depend on chemicals. But at the same time when food is grown closer it takes less fossil fuels to get the food to where it's going. Local farming has different pros and cons that may affect the opinion people have of it. Its takes three pounds of feed to raise one pound of chicken. There are some companies that use or idea that locally grown food is better for us than food that was grown farther away to make us believe that there food is
When it comes to the topic of the local food movement, Stephen Budiansky will readily argue that it is actually better to nationally transport nourishments and expend produce from agriculture fields U.S have than it is to buy food that is grown locally. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of which is the better way to eat? Whereas some are convinced that eating organically is the way to be, Budiansky maintain otherwise.
It is also shown that pesticides are partly responsible for the rising cancer rates and birth defects among children (“Pesticides”).
If we all took the time to do the easy research to buy local and support our community, we can visualize a healthy community both economically and physically. Less traffic and allergies and more fresh produce! According to greenupgrader.com one of the top reasons to buy local is because small local businesses are the largest employers nationally. Plus the more jobs you have in your local community the less people are going to have to commute which means more time and less traffic and pollution. Another benefit of buying local is Competition and