Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Buying "Local" does not necessarily mean buying healthy.

More to come, draft 1

Let's start this off by stating that there is nothing wrong with buying local, and a lot right. Supporting smaller scale producers of anything helps promote diversity in our economy, buying things from local producers cuts down on waste of transporting items across the continent (or further) before they get from their suppliers to your door, and when it comes to food buying local can mean buying produce that has not went through many of the daunting effects of the industrialized food system, but it is important to realize that it can mean that, but it does not necessarily mean that. 

What the heck do I mean by that you ask? Well let's start by talking veggies. Let's say you want to buy your local vegetables to get away from the pesticides and chemical fertilizers that are utilized in the foods that make it to your grocers produce shelf? That is something most of us can stand behind, but just because produce is grown "locally" does not mean that this is the case however. Local farmers who shop at the franchised farm supply stores are likely purchasing the same chemical fertilizers and quite possibly spraying the same pesticides on their vegetables as big agriculture that you are trying to get away from. Have you asked your farmer what type of fertilizers or fertilization methods that he (or she) uses? Have you asked them about their use of pesticides? Is this something that you might view as important?

Now let's talk the industry that I really understand, the meat business. When a local farmer raises a calf to become a cow they are quite often tempted to fall back on the grain fueling process.