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Buying Locally

FACT: The food on your plate travels 50% further than it did in 1980, maybe as much as 2,500 - 4,000 km

Most consumers in the Developed countries have become used to eating what they want, when they want. Thanks to air transport, foods like strawberries or runner beans are now available throughout the year at most large supermarkets. However, the consequences of the increasing distance between the producer and the consumer include:

- a need for more transport, which means more fossil fuels, which means more air pollution, and, of course, an ever louder clammering for more roads to be built!

- a need for more chemicals to preserve the produce

- a need for more packaging and processing of food to protect it on its journeys.

- a decreased biodiversity in the basic global foodstuffs as produce becomes standardized for overseas markets

- the destruction of local economies - both here and abroad.


However, if instead of buying food from afar, if we support local producers, not only do the above negatives disappear, but there are definite positives. These include:

- supports the local economy, so preserving jobs

- reduces dependencies on fluctuating world commodity markets

- like Fair Trade, it directly benefits local food producers and cuts out the middle men, who usually takes the largest slice of the profits

- creates a sense of community by the consumer coming face to face with the producer

- is healthy because the food is fresher and has more flavour!

- is fun and provides opportunities to go to farms and markets and socialise with people from differing backgrounds and professions

- reconnects us with "The Seasons" through the seasonality of vegetables, which in turn connects us with the natural world

Read this WORLDWATCH special feature aguing the case for local food