Know Your Farmer - Local is the New Organic

Yesterday was the first day of a spring/summer ritual for many  - it was opening day of our local Spring/Summer Farmer’s Market. We arrived early and the parking lot was full, and it will be weeks before any hopes of fresh produce will become a reality. The money was changing hands anyway, and people were buying everything from meats to cheese and milk to bread to plant starts.  This year even brought not one but two local organic coffee roasters! And well, you know me; coffee is one of my favorite things!

We shop almost exclusively at the Farmer’s Market for a multitude of reasons – but putting those reasons aside, how has our Farmer’s Market, and those across the nation, managed to grow so popular, so fast?

In my opinion, it’s about the quality. People want to know WHERE their food comes from, and know that the food that they put on their tables is the best quality that it can possibly be.

The Organic Consumers Association reports that traditional farmer's markets are flourishing, and not only for the fresh, seasonal produce. As consumers begin to visit these local establishments they learn that food has a history and a taste, and that there are other members of their communities, from amateur growers to professional farmers, who are eager to talk about the food on display.

While many farmers in our Market are not certified “organic”, they are using clean, hormone and pesticide free farming methods. Certification is costly, but the story behind their techniques is just a short conversation. Over the years we have picked those that farm the way we like to eat, joined their CSA’s and refer them to friends. If you are unsure just say, “do you use pesticides” they will either say yes or no, you can decide from there.

We are committed to our Farmer’s Market year round, and every other Saturday all winter long we bundled up and braved the elements to buy fresh meat, eggs, milk and cheese. Yes, the farmers travel to be there, but usually no more than 30 miles. Our food is local, our farmer’s are local, we are supporting the local economy, and at the same time eating clean, ethically grown food.

It’s a fact that eating local means more for the local economy.  According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London, a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy.  When businesses are not owned locally, money leaves the community at every transaction.

When you go to a conventional grocery store, how much of the food sold there is local? Probably not much. According to statistics in Brian Halweil's Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, fruits and vegetables now travel between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to market, "an increase of roughly 20 percent in the last two decades." And that's just the produce within the U.S. Halweil says that 898 million tons of food are shipped around the planet each year, four times the amount that was shipped in 1961.

That’s mind-boggling and unsound on so many different levels that I’m not quite sure where to even start. The miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage that outweighs the benefit of buying organic. And the environmental damage caused by corporate farming and the transport of conventional and organic food on every shelf in the supermarket is devastating.

Bottom line – local is the new organic. I feel good each and every week to go out and hand money to my local farmers in exchange for quality food. The money I hand them goes directly back into their operation, and their pocket. There is no middleman taking his cut, my money to the farmer. Period. And the quality I get in return? Priceless.

Fresher – tastier – and more nutritious, each and every time.

Know your farmer, and support your farmer’s market – your health and your community’s financial sustainability depend on it! To find a farmer’s market in your area, go to Local Harvest at http://www.localharvest.org/.