Why Buy Local?
Buying fresh, local food is both rewarding and delicious for many reasons, including: improved flavor and nutritional value, environmental stewardship, support for family farms and rural communities, and ensuring animal welfare.
One of the biggest benefits to buying food locally is having someone to answer questions about how it was grown and raised. Developing a relationship with local farmers gives you an “in” with your local food system! At Farm Sweet Farm, you can get answers to questions like: What do your cows eat? Can we be certain that the beef lived a life without suffering? What’s the best way to prepare a whole chicken? What are the characteristics of a fresh egg? You are always welcome to tour our farm to see where your food comes from; we are thrilled to share our knowledge and experience with our customers!
A significant reason to buy local is to keep food miles to a minimum.“Food miles” refers to the distance a food item travels from the farm to your home. Most of today’s grocery store items travel an average of 1,500 miles from the farm to our table. About 40% of our fruit is produced overseas. Broccoli, despite being grown in the U.S., still travels an average of 1,800 miles to the supermarket. Notably, 9% of our red meat comes from foreign countries, some as far away as Australia and New Zealand. A tremendous amount of energy (including fossil fuels) is used to transport food such long distances. This process releases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and other pollutants that likely contribute to global climate change, acid rain, smog, and air and sea pollution. The refrigeration required to keep our fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meats from spoiling during their long journeys burn up even more fossil fuel. In contrast, your local and regional food systems produce about 17 times less carbon dioxide.
Buying Local vs. Supermarket
How else will buying local benefit you versus buying all of your groceries at the supermarket? When you purchase locally grown products from Farm Sweet Farm LLC:
You can visit the farm anytime. You will know how the food was raised. You can connect directly with the land on which your food was grown. The more you feel connected to the people who produce what you eat, the better we all preserve our regional food heritage.
In these times when obesity and diet-related illnesses are on the rise, replacing heavily processed foods with local grown farm products may improve your health.
You will know the food was raised as Nature intended, without growth hormones, without antibiotics, and without unnecessary preservatives and processing.
Dollars spent close to home tend to stay close to home. Keeping local farmers in business supports local community economies. Small farms become more sustainable when fewer middlemen (large corporations) cut into farm profits.
The food will travel directly from our local farm to your home, keeping food miles to a minimum. The food will not be shipped thousands of miles across the U.S., consuming additional energy and fossil fuel.