5 Reasons Eating Food From Local Farms Is Better
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One important health consideration that isn’t talked about nearly as much as it should be is the significant positive impact it can make to get your fresh produce from a local source.
While most Australians get their produce from local grocery stores or supermarkets, the source where the food actually comes from can often be from large scale farms located across country. This results in lengthy transportation and storage times compromising on the quality, freshness and nutrient density of your food.
This has a bigger impact to your health than most people realise.
There is a lot of value in putting in the extra bit of research that it takes to find places to buy locally grown, seasonal and organic food and lucky for you, we have done the heavy lifting. We have created a community service which connects produce to people and you direct to the source.
Here are five reasons why eating food sourced from local farms is better:
1) Eating Food From Local Farms is More Nutritious
First, let’s start with the number one way eating produce from local farms benefits you directly: local food is more nutritious.
Believe it or not, the amount of time it takes for your food to get from the farm to your table does actually have an impact on its nutrient content.
See, when fruits and vegetables are first harvested, they immediately start undergoing a decomposition process in which their nutrients are broken down.
As Amihud Kramer from the University of Maryland, USA explains, ”With few exceptions, nutrient levels and/or their bioavailability are reduced in foods following harvest, slaughter, or collection.”
The longer it takes for them to be consumed, the fewer nutrients they will ultimately have when you get around to eating them.
So when your apple travels 1,500 kms to get from the farm to your plate, it spends quite a bit of time sitting in refrigerated trucks and warehouses, the vital nutrients inside of it breaking down all the while.
That means that the less travel time and distance between the farm (we call these Food Miles) and the table, the more nutrition you’ll get from your food.
Check out our seasonal produce boxes to make the switch over
2) Farm Fresh Food Tastes Better
Okay, so your local food will be better for your body, but what about your soul?
Because we don’t just eat to keep our bodies running, but also for pleasure. Well,
it turns out that local food tastes better, too.
Just like nutrients start to degrade immediately from when food is harvested and continue to do so with every hour and day that passes, the same thing happens with flavours.
But with local foods fresh from farms, crops are picked at the peak of their ripeness and delivered to you shortly after so that you can enjoy your fruits and vegetables when they are at their best, still fresh and full of flavor.
If you have never tried a real, fresh apple, do yourself a favour and get yourself a kilo here
3) Locally Sourced Food is Better for Your Community
Now, let’s move on past the advantages that you’ll get as an individual from buying your food from local farms and take a bit of a wider approach.
Because you’re not the only one who will benefit from a commitment to eating local.
The reality is that your typical giant chain supermarket or factory farm will do just fine without your business.
But each and every time that you buy from a local farmer, you are making a positive impact on their livelihood and their families.
In that sense, eating food from local farms supports your local communities by supporting the farmers, their families.
4) Locally Sourced Food is Better for the Environment
And what about looking even more globally than just your community?
Because the truth is that eating food from local farms is actually making a positive impact on the world as a whole.
Think about it.
The logistics and shipment required to get food from the mega farms to grocery stores in other states and countries requires a whole lot of energy and fuel.
As you can imagine, these things have a significant carbon footprint.
Imagine being able to reduce those unnecessary environmental costs just by shopping local? By buying your food from local farms, you’re voting with your dollar for a business that uses less food miles, and as a result, creates fewer greenhouse gases that damage our environment.
Beyond that, local farmers tend to have much more environmentally friendly practices because they live and breathe the same air you do.
Rather than stripping the land of its nutrients, small farms actually conserve fertile soil and even put nutrients back into the earth. This is known as regenerative farming and is the way of the future.
5) Farm Fresh Food Keeps YOU Connected
When you think about it, shopping at national supermarket chains that buy their produce from large farms (for an unfair price may we add) thousands of kms away is a relatively recent practice.
For millennia, humans had a much stronger connection with their food and, as a result, their environments and one another.
When you shop locally, you get to know the local farmers of your community. You learn about the land you live on, its seasons, and its food.
It provides an opportunity to understand more about nature and agriculture, allowing you to have a real relationship with your food and the people who grow it so that you feel connected to the world you live in instead of alienated from it.
These reasons and more are why we source our produce and meat from small-batch, sustainable and organic local farms.
When you order our delicious food boxes from Clarence Valley Organics, you’re supporting the following local farms including but not limited to:
- Woody's Farm in Mororo, NSW, a small scale tomato farm specialising in table varieties, lettuce and seasonal herbs. Using minimal spray methods and servicing many local cafes, restaurants and markets.
- The Patch Organics, a humane poultry farm in Bellingen, NSW that uses no animal by-products, no genetically modified organisms, no antibiotics, no pesticide-treated grains, and no grains grown with chemical fertilizers.
- Solum Farm in Mororo, NSW, a certified organic small scale farm that uses regenerative annual farming practices with the goal of developing carbon-sequestering humus and nutrient-dense food and herbs.
- Richmond Mushooms in Woodburn, NSW, a small mushroom dedicated to providing quality produce, servicing many of the valleys restaurants and small business.
- Richmond Range Meats in Richmond Valley of NSW, a certified organic and free range farm committed to fostering sustainability on all levels and providing certified organic grass fed and finished beef and pork.
Let's eat local, shop local, and be healthier and happier together! Order your first box today!
Sincerely,