DOES EATING LOCAL MATTER?

Eating local is more than just a new trend. There are a number of good reasons why you should try to eat local products as much as possible – take a look at this list, and let us know if you have any questions or comments by following us on Facebook or leaving a note on this blog.

1. A major environmental impact: when you buy local produce, meats, and other products, you are cutting helping the environment. How? In order to bring goods from far away places to your local mega-mart, trucks and fuel are needed – lots of trucks and fuel. Eliminating the need for so much fuel consumption and getting rid of the toxic fumes that trucks emit means keeping our world a lot cleaner.
2. You will be connecting with the community that surrounds you: buying meat from a local farm means supporting a local farmer. Buying produce from someone that sells goods at a farmer’s market means putting money back into your community. The same is true for purchasing any kind of product that is made locally – you are supporting the place where you live. What could be more important than your home?
3. The security that comes with knowing where your products come from: often, produce and other goods that are brought to stores from afar are sprayed with chemicals, may be mistreated, and could even come from a place that you are unaware of. When you buy from a local farmer, you know (and can see) first- hand how those things are grown, and how things are handled.
4. Fresher food: you can’t really get any fresher than food that has just been picked, can you?
5. Eat according to the seasons: it’s a lot of fun to eat foods that are in season. If you sign up for a local CSA, you’ll be handed a basket of things in season to eat – have you ever made something with garlic scapes before? Try it out!
6. Connect with your neighbors. Get to know the people in your town that are growing food, helping build the community, and working to make eating healthy possible for people like you. There’s nothing quite like knowing the people that grow your food.
7. Feel good about the foods that you are feeding yourself and your family. Food really does taste better when it comes directly from a local farm. From fresh apples to sweet string beans, local food is the best way to take care of your body, and the bodies of the people that you love.

COMBINING LOCAL WITH OUR RECIPES

Part of a vegetarian diet is eating a ton of fresh and healthy vegetables. When you eat local, your vegetarian diet will thrive, and you’ll love what you’re eating. If you combine all of that local produce with the raw food recipes that you will find in our books, you’ll get the best of both worlds. We have an abundance of raw food recipes in our cookbooks including raw food recipes that coincide with the seasons.

If you’ve been thinking about eating local, give it a shot. You can look for a cooperative in your area, an urban rooftop-farming outfit if you live in the city, or simply knock on the door of a local farm to see what you can buy — local goodies are all around us, we just have to look. And, remember, every time you buy something local, you are supporting the neighborhood that you live in – what could be more important?

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Local food CC Photo Courtesy of sea turtle

Cover Food CC Photo Courtesy of epSos .de