| Why Eat Local? 13 Lucky Reasons |
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| 1OOMILEDIET.ORG | |||
| Monday, 23 July 2007 | |||
  1. Taste the difference At a farmers' market or local organic produce shop, most local produce has been picked inside of 24 hours. It comes to you ripe, fresh, and with its full flavour, unlike supermarket food that may have been picked weeks or months before. Close-to-home foods can also be bred for taste, rather than withstanding the abuse of shipping or industrial harvesting. Buying food today is complicated. What pesticides were used? Is that corn genetically modified? Was that chicken free range or did it grow up in a box? People who eat locally find it easier to get answers. Many build relationships with farmers whom they trust. And when in doubt, they can drive out to the farms and see for themselves. 3. Meet your neighbours Local eating is social. Studies show that people shopping at farmers' markets and local organic shops have 10 times more conversations than their counterparts at the supermarket. Join a community garden and you'll actually meet the people you pass on the street. 4. Get in touch with the seasons When you eat locally, you eat what's in season. You'll remember that cherries are the taste of summer. Even in winter, comfort foods like squash soup and pancakes just make sense-a lot more sense than flavourless cherries from the other side of the world. 5. Discover new flavours Count the types of pear on offer at your supermarket. Maybe three? Small farms are keeping alive many heirloom varieties—but thousands of varieties have been lost around the world in our rush to sameness. 6. Explore your home Visiting local farms is a way to be a tourist on your own home turf, with plenty of stops for snacks. 7. Save the world A study in Iowa, USA found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country. The ingredients for a typical British meal, sourced locally, travelled 66 times fewer "food miles." Or we can just keep burning those fossil fuels and learn to live with global climate change, the fiercest hurricane seasons in history, wars over resources... 8. Support small farms We discovered that many people from all walks of life dream of working the land—maybe you do too. In areas with strong local markets, the family farm is reviving. That's a whole lot better than the jobs at big supermarkets and fast-food outlets. 9. Give back to the local economy A British study tracked how much of the money spent at a local food business stayed in the local economy, and how many times it was reinvested. The total value was almost twice the contribution of a dollar spent at a supermarket chain. 10. Be healthy By eating produce sourced from your local farmers' market or organic shop (and cooking from scratch), you'll probably lose weight, but more importantly, though, feel better than ever. You'll be eating more vegetables and fewer processed products, sampling a wider variety of foods, and eating more fresh food at its nutritional peak. 11. Create memories A friend of ours has a theory that a night spent making jam—or in his case, dumplings—with friends will always be better a time than the latest Hollywood blockbuster. We're convinced. 12. More fun while travelling Once you're addicted to local eating, you'll want to explore it wherever you go. On a recent trip to Mexico, earth-baked corn and hot-spiced sour oranges led us away from the resorts and into the small towns. Somewhere along the line, a mute magician gave us a free show over bowls of lime soup in a little cantina. 13. And always remember: Everything about food and cooking is a metaphor for sex.
Disclaimer: Harmonious Living is written for and read by a community of individuals with strong and independent opinions. While the publishers of Harmonious Living are dedicated to providing a forum in which views can be openly expressed, those views do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.
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