Here are the top
10 reasons to buy locally grown food. Buying local helps not only the environment, but also our health and the welfare of laborers.
1. Richard Pirog of Iowa State University calculates that the average produce travels 1,500 miles in 3 days to reach his state. Farther than that if you're on the East Coast.
2. Locally grown food makes up less than 1% of the $900 billion food industry. The other 99% comes from industrialized farms.
3. Industrial agriculture uses huge amounts of fossil fuels. Chemical fertilizers and plastic packaging are made from fossil fuels. The farm machinery, the trucks for moving food across the country, the refrigeration needed for the journey, and the packaging machines all require fossil fuels. As we all know, fossil fuels are the primary culprit in global warming.
4. Shipping food across the country uses 17 times as much fossil fuels and emits 5 to 17 times as much carbon dioxide (the major greenhouse gas causing global warming) as distributing food within a local system.
5. Labors employed on factory farms and in packing plants are usually low-income minorities and immigrants who are vulnerable to exploitive practices. Illegal immigrants are threatened with deportation when they complain about injuries. Just today on NPR (Nov 17) I heard a piece about Smithfield, the world's largest pork packaging company, engaged in a bitter dispute with the meatpacker's union because Smithfield fired 40 immigrants at their Tarheel NC meatpacking plant. Smithfield has been convicted of numerous labor violations in the past, including threatening workers who even talk with union representatives. The Tarheel plant is not unionized, because the plant management intimidates workers into voting against the union. For more about that, google "Blood, Sweat, and Fear," a fascinating research document about labor violations in the meat industry.
6. The rural way of life is disappearing as hundreds of thousands of small farms have gone out of business in the last decade. Corporations have taken over food production, and rural lands are being sold to developers to accommodate urban sprawl.
But things are looking up.7. In a local food system, where farmers sell to their neighbors through farmers markets
and to area restaurants, produce travels an average of only 45 miles. Good news: the number of farmers markets has doubled in the last decade to 3,700.
8. Although the number of small family farms is still decreasing due to consolidation into large industrial farms, the number of organic or sustainable farms operated by young entrpreneurs is increasing!
9. Food from small farms is much more likely to be raised without chemicals, protecting our health and the environment. It's also more likely to be raised humanely.
10. If we support our local farmers by asking in our supermarkets for local and seasonal food, we can help the new wave of small farmers fight back against industrial agriculture.
Many of the facts in this article came from an article by Washington Post writer Neil Peirce, which appeared in the Charlotte Observer October 14, "Comsume the right lesson from spinach scare."
Keywords: local food, agribusiness, Smithfield, fossil fuels, global warming, seasonal food, family farms, animal rights, chemical fertilizers, diet, healthy diet, farmers markets, sustainable food, sustainable farms, factory farms, immigrants, labor rights, unions, organic, meatpackers, top 10, eco-reasons, top 10 reasons
1. Richard Pirog of Iowa State University calculates that the average produce travels 1,500 miles in 3 days to reach his state. Farther than that if you're on the East Coast.
2. Locally grown food makes up less than 1% of the $900 billion food industry. The other 99% comes from industrialized farms.
3. Industrial agriculture uses huge amounts of fossil fuels. Chemical fertilizers and plastic packaging are made from fossil fuels. The farm machinery, the trucks for moving food across the country, the refrigeration needed for the journey, and the packaging machines all require fossil fuels. As we all know, fossil fuels are the primary culprit in global warming.
4. Shipping food across the country uses 17 times as much fossil fuels and emits 5 to 17 times as much carbon dioxide (the major greenhouse gas causing global warming) as distributing food within a local system.
5. Labors employed on factory farms and in packing plants are usually low-income minorities and immigrants who are vulnerable to exploitive practices. Illegal immigrants are threatened with deportation when they complain about injuries. Just today on NPR (Nov 17) I heard a piece about Smithfield, the world's largest pork packaging company, engaged in a bitter dispute with the meatpacker's union because Smithfield fired 40 immigrants at their Tarheel NC meatpacking plant. Smithfield has been convicted of numerous labor violations in the past, including threatening workers who even talk with union representatives. The Tarheel plant is not unionized, because the plant management intimidates workers into voting against the union. For more about that, google "Blood, Sweat, and Fear," a fascinating research document about labor violations in the meat industry.
6. The rural way of life is disappearing as hundreds of thousands of small farms have gone out of business in the last decade. Corporations have taken over food production, and rural lands are being sold to developers to accommodate urban sprawl.
But things are looking up.
7. In a local food system, where farmers sell to their neighbors through farmers markets
and to area restaurants, produce travels an average of only 45 miles. Good news: the number of farmers markets has doubled in the last decade to 3,700.
8. Although the number of small family farms is still decreasing due to consolidation into large industrial farms, the number of organic or sustainable farms operated by young entrpreneurs is increasing!
9. Food from small farms is much more likely to be raised without chemicals, protecting our health and the environment. It's also more likely to be raised humanely.
10. If we support our local farmers by asking in our supermarkets for local and seasonal food, we can help the new wave of small farmers fight back against industrial agriculture.
Many of the facts in this article came from an article by Washington Post writer Neil Peirce, which appeared in the Charlotte Observer October 14, "Comsume the right lesson from spinach scare."
Keywords: local food, agribusiness, Smithfield, fossil fuels, global warming, seasonal food, family farms, animal rights, chemical fertilizers, diet, healthy diet, farmers markets, sustainable food, sustainable farms, factory farms, immigrants, labor rights, unions, organic, meatpackers, top 10, eco-reasons, top 10 reasons