How Fresh is Your Food #EatLocal
When we’re shopping at the grocery store for our family most of us don’t think of the exact pinpoint location of where each vegetable, meat and produce we eat comes from. We look at each fresh food for quality, colour and what seems to be a fresh appearance and feel. What most consumers don’t realize is that most of these seemingly fresh foods can take days or even weeks before reaching our grocery stores and losing many nutritional elements along the way. Educating ourselves and our families to where our food comes from is only the beginning to what we can do to help; it starts with each household and changing purchasing habits.
Going from the city to a farming community lifestyle by choice I became increasingly aware of how difficult it is for farmers to establish, let alone make ends meet and continue what they love to do carrying on family farming tradition throughout generations. My in-laws came from a generation of crop farmers. Naturally we approached them with a desire to continue on the farming tradition upon their retirement however they talked us out of it. In fact, it is becoming increasingly normal for farmers to retire the family farm and these generations of families move into the cities but who replaces these farms and farmers? Farms are replaced by commercial, industrial and suburban properties and we become reliant on imports.
In 15 years our food imports raised 160% and our population only 15%.
Why does this effect you?
- We may eventually lose the ability to produce foods we consume; think of future generations.
- Negative impacts our economy, neighbourhood and our environment.
How can you help? Buy LOCAL first! How?
- Support local farmers, farming communities and programs like farmer markets, u-pick farms, craft shows and agribition.
- Start looking for locally grown and Canadian raised foods in your grocery stores.
- Ask for and purchase locally grown and raised foods. The closer to home you purchase your food, the fresher it will likely be.
- Check school cafeteria programs to see if they purchase local foods.
- Encourage family and friends to make the switch.
Initially imported foods seem less expensive but at what cost? Watch this video to learn why making the conscious switch is important for economy, community, environment and family. The more we support locally grown and raised foods, the better chance future generations of farmers continue to provide self-sufficient living.
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. Opinions are my own and solely those of This Lil Piglet.
We finally have a big enough yard that we can grow a lot of our own food, and what I cant grow I try to get at farmers markets.
That’s really great to hear; not only are you eating as fresh as you can for your family but you are supporting your local farmers too. Thank you! 🙂
During the summer I do buy as many fresh fruits/veggies from the farmers stand but there aren’t many veggies to offer as in the bigger areas. Oh the best thing about summer is fresh veggies/fruit.
That’s good that you seek out local foods when you can; it’s not always easily accessible in some areas and mainly at peak times of the year. You can tell a fresh local taste from imports any day. 🙂
Great article. We buy local whenever possible. I actually perfer it. The products are fresher and snce we go so often we have gotton to know the farmers. It’s a bit more expensive for us to buy locally, but it’s worth it.
You sure can tell the difference between fresh local foods and store bought imports. I agree they are a little more expensive but if you look at where the imports come from and the free trade agreements, it’s easy to figure out why stores import to make a larger profit than they can selling local. Difference is that our farmers would never make a living off the prices importers sell their foods at.
I hate buying certain produce in the stores, like Tomatoes. There is a local farmer here who hot houses them in the winter and I pay three times as much as the stores, but gosh, they taste 100 times better so for me paying more for a better product makes me happy. Now, if I could just get someone to grow an Avacado tree I’d be really happy, but alas NJ isn’t the right temperate for Avacado’s. So sad.
I was born and raised in the country and always had a garden growing up. My husband and I usually plant a small one, it’s only us at home now. What we don’t grow we go to our local produce stands that most of the farmers set up on their property!
Thanks for this. Due to an illness I have had to really examine and research what food I get and yes going local is the best choice. Also organic there are a lot more nutirients in the organic choices. Thanks for sharing your post.
I do try to buy local when I can. Thanks for the helpful hints!
Where we live there are no farmers markets around! I really want to try to buy local but it’s so difficult to find anything here!
This year I will plant my own garden, something that I have not done in years. It will be nice to be able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables knowing exactly what I am getting.
I’m trying right now to convince our school board to buy local when it comes to vegetables but it’s so hard going up against the big companies who have contracts with the schools.
We grow a lot of our vegetables in the summer such as tomatoes,beans, eggplant, peppers and cucumbers. I do not like the look of the vegetables in the supermarket.
I wish my town had more local farm stands around, all we’ve got are commercial supermarkets. But when I do see them, I try to stop by and purchase produce!
My daughter lives in a big city and she is with at group that has fresh vegtables sent to them every 2 weeks from the Farmer’s Market outside of the city.
I live in Brazil, and here, in every city, doesn’t matter if it’s a small or a big one, are weekly street markets where you can buy food from local producers – fresher and cheaper than any other place. I can’t live without it.
I live in a part of NY where there are a TON of farms…I absolutely love our Farmer’s Markets…there’s a lot of them, and they are an essential part of our community.
im from the philippines and im lucky my uncle have a fresh plant like eggplant okra and talbos ng kamote….sorry dont know whats call in english
My kitchen table is covered the potted starts that we cant put outside in the garden yet because it is still too cold 🙂
Thankyou for that insight into our food,think sometimes it takes a little wake up call for people to realize exactly what theyre getting for their money,and that its not always what the packages state or as fresh as it appears.
Thank you for your post. I had not really thought about where our food comes from until this last year. That statistic you posted is very thought provoking (about population vs food import growth). I need to locate a local farm and see what other kind of local food options are here.