Eating local organic foods can benefit yourself, the environment, and the local economy. Many times when you buy locally grown foods they are much more fresh. When it comes to fruits and vegetables this often means that they pack more nutrients than those that have been traveling for a week or more and may have been picked before they were fully ripe. Most of the time they also taste much better than their conventionally grown counterparts. If the produce you buy is organic you obviously don't have to worry about what chemicals they are covered in that may be put into your body.
The environment is benefited in many ways as well. It is estimated that the average American meal travels about 1500 miles before reaching your plate. This causes a lot of unnecessary fossil fuels to be burnt in order to ship it around everywhere. By eating local you greatly cut down on the amount of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions that go into shipping the food we eat. The environment is also benefited if the foods are organically grown. The local ecosystem remains much more healthy without all the pesticides, herbicides, and other deadly chemicals that come with conventional farming being released into the environment.
The local economy also gets a big boost when people buy local foods. Money spent with local farmers, growers, and locally-owned purveyors and restaurants all stays close to home, working to build your local economy instead of being handed over to a corporation in another city or country. Since the food moves through fewer hands, more money tends to get to the people growing it. According to the USDA, off farm costs including marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing account for 80 cents of every food dollar spent in the U.S., leaving roughly 20% for the farmers. By buying foods at your local farmers market you can cut out a large part of these unnecessary costs and put more money into the pockets of your local farmer and your community.
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