8 Reasons to Eat Local Foods – Holistic Squid

The average produce grown in North America spends anywhere from 5 days to several weeks in transit after harvest. According to Michael Pollan, author of the best selling book, Food Rules: An Eaters Manual, the average food item travels approximately 1500 miles and comes from 5 countries to get to your table. Buying local means you eliminate all of the fuel needed for transport.

I’m a huge fan of the Holistic Squid and was a patient of the Squid herself for a time about a year and a half ago. She turned me on to the amazing Mar Vista Farmers Market and introduced me to some of the Paleo concepts that I incorporate into my family’s lifestyle still today.

Courtesy of the Squid, I now hit the Mar Vista market every Sunday without fail, and increasingly, the Manhattan Beach market on Tuesdays. I’ve become so spoiled, I can barely stand for what passes as healthy produce at a conventional grocery store.

This week, the Squid is out with a guest post on her blog titled “8 Reasons To Eat Local.” The article is a great reminder about all the reasons it makes sense to shop our local farmers markets.

The Squid’s list:

1. Local food is safer because it doesn’t travel through our overly complicated food distribution system and get exposed to food problems in that system.
2. The consumer has more power and control over food choices when s/he can question the farmer directly, as is the case with a farmers market.
3. The quality of local food is better because it comes to market faster.
4. Eating from local sources allows you to eat with the seasons, preventing burn out from eating the same thing for months on end.
5. Local food is fresh and tastes better for it.
6. Buying local food helps the local economy and develops food community. Personally, I’m on a first name basis with my favorite meat and produce purveyors at the Mar Vista market. That doesn’t happen at Ralphs.
7. Helping out a farmer by supporting his efforts to sell local means his transportation and distribution costs are less, allowing him to “plow” profits back in to his business.
8. Local food means a smaller environmental footprint by avoiding the national food distribution system.

Are you sold? See you on Sunday? Drop a note in the comments and I’ll spill on all my favorite vendors. 😀