Eating locally helps preserve local and small- scale farmland. Reducing the distance food travels (food miles) cuts down on associated fossil fuel consumption, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
It's good for the environment. Local food doesn't have to travel as far to arrive on your plate, so it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to improving our carbon footprint. It benefits the local economy, including supporting local farmers and other producers.
8 Benefits of Eating Local Food
The main health benefit of locally grown food is that it's fresher. Fruits and vegetables begin to lose their nutrients within 24 hours of being picked, so fresher produce is more nutritious. ... Better quality soil and more sustainable farming practices typically mean better tasting, more nutritious produce.
Reducing food miles helps alleviate our dependence on fossil fuels, reduce air pollution and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. It Promotes Accountability: When food is raised and grown locally, the consumer better understands how and where their food is being produced.
1) Locally grown food tastes and looks better. The crops are picked at their peak, and farmstead products like cheeses and are hand-crafted for best flavor. ... 2) Local food is better for you. The shorter the time between the farm and your table, the less likely it is that nutrients will be lost from fresh food.
Does Local Mean Safe? Chemically grown foods produced locally may be cheaper than organic and may aid the local economy but they pollute the ground water, kill the soil food web, broadcast pesticides into the air, poison farmworkers, and incrementally poison consumers with toxic residues on their foods.
So while buying local food could reduce the average consumer's greenhouse gas emissions by 4-5 percent at best, substituting part of one day a week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products with chicken, fish, eggs, or vegetables achieves more greenhouse gas reduction than switching to a diet based entirely ...
This study found that, with many products, local food sold at the farmers market was statistically less expensive than comparable non-local food sold at nearby supermarkets.
Local food is defined as the direct or intermediated marketing of food to consumers that is produced and distributed in a limited geographic area. There is no pre-determined distance to define what consumers consider “local,” but a set number of miles from a center point or state/local boundaries is often used.
Eating locally grown food is good for your body and the environment. Eating locally is an important factor of sustainable agriculture.
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