Your health can benefit when you get to know your food better. Supporting farmers within your community is a great step towards positively influencing various aspects like personal health, community health, and environmental health.
Personal health:
Supporting local farmers can mean less food processing and a shorter amount of time between farm to table. In comparison, imported foods tend to be picked pre-ripened and may have a loss of nutrients between travel. Fresh local produce will less likely lose as many nutrients, benefitting your overall health. Eating locally is likely to offer more seasonal food as well, limiting the amount of transportation time it takes to get to you.
Environmental health:
Local foods take less distance to your plate, which reduces emissions from traveling. Local bought foods can also use less packaging in comparison to imported and store foods. For a long time, I never considered soil health to have much to do with the environment. I thought it could be as simple as watering dirt. Turns out, soil health is vastly important for not only sustainability, but the nutrients in your food. Your food is only as healthy as the soil it is grown in! Supporting local farmers that provide well-managed farms like protecting fertile soil, conserving water, and supporting wildlife can significantly impact preserving land and the environment (unm.edu).
Community health:
Increasing support for local farmers means supporting local families and the economy. Farmers who can sell directly to consumers can profit more money by using fewer people throughout the process. In addition, buying from local farmers improves food security in communities and helps get food to people within the community. (unm.edu) Buying local has countless positive influences to your health. Creating relationships with local farmers that are doing it right can effectively contribute to sustainability and overall health.
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