Why Buy and Eat Locally?

1. Promote a Local Economy

Spent locally, our dollars recirculate in our communities. Buying directly from local farmers generates 44% more money for the local economy than purchasing food at supermarkets.(1)

2. Help Farmers

On average, farmers receive only 16 cents of each dollar we spend on food.2 The rest goes to packaging, processing, transportation, and, most of all, advertising. By buying local, we assure that local and regional family farmers get full retail price for their food—which means farm families can afford to stay on the farm.

3. Eat Tastier & Healthier

Fresh produce loses nutrients quickly.3 In a week’s delay from harvest to dinner table, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality. Processed foods, sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and filled with hydrogenated oils, are linked to health problems like obesity and diabetes. Food grown in our community was probably picked within the last few days. It is crisp, sweet, and loaded with flavor and nutrition.

4. Know Who Does the Growing

By buying locally, we can develop a relationship with the people growing our food. When we value our food and the people who produce it, our quality of life as a community grows.

5. Reduce Climate Impact

Today the average food item travels roughly 1500 miles from farm to fork.4 Energy-intensive industrial agriculture, packaging, and long-distance food transportation produce roughly 20% of all climatedisrupting greenhouse gases. Buying locally reduces transportation costs and our dependence on foreign oil.

6. Stay Safe

Concern about food safety, from E-coli outbreaks to dangerous pesticide residues, is another reason to buy organic and local food, which provides a safe alternative to industrially produced food.

7. Protect Food Security

If the county were to become isolated, food grown in the area would be crucial. We increase our security with a strong local food system.

8. Preserve Farmland and the Environment

As the value of locally produced meats, fruits, and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued. In addition, the fields, hedgerows, ponds, and buildings provide wildlife habitat. When you buy locally grown food, you are helping to preserve our agricultural landscape and rural community.

9. Avoid Hidden Costs

The price we pay for industrially produced food doesn’t reflect its true cost: pollution and public health damage resulting from toxic pesticide and fertilizer use, sweatshop conditions for farm workers, water pollution from agriculture runoff, and billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies that mainly go to a handful of large corporations. When we buy food from local farmers and stores, we better support the people who grow it.

10. Support Locally-Owned Stores

Local farmers, dairies, fish catchers, and businesses are more accountable and invested in our community than industrial farms and big box chain stores. Supporting local stores keeps money, jobs, and resources in our community. If we don’t shop locally, the local stores will disappear. It’s our choice!