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Just because it’s an ice-cold evening in January doesn’t mean you can’t have asparagus for dinner. It’s easily found at your local grocery, in the bins near the Spanish strawberries and Mexican tomatoes.

Produce is routinely shipped thousands of miles to satisfy our food cravings. And then it sits temptingly, and relatively inexpensively, on local grocers’ shelves. However, the real cost—to our environment, health and local economies—generally isn’t reflected in the price.

A generation ago, the concept of having corn on the cob in March seemed impossible if you lived in a four-season climate. But today’s food is trucked, hauled and flown to any destination.

Food Miles
The distance a particular food travels from a farm to your table is called ‘food miles,’ and many foods are long-distance travelers. The produce at US supermarkets averages 1,500 miles before arriving at your kitchen.

According to Sustainable Table, even though broccoli is generally grown within 20 miles of home, the broccoli we buy at the grocery can travel up to 1,800 miles before reaching the store. Apples can also earn their frequent flyer miles: although most of us live within 60 miles of an apple orchard, the apples we buy at the supermarket have logged approximately 1,725 miles to get there.

Sustainable Table estimates that 40% of the fruit eaten in US homes is imported from other countries. And nine percent of the meat that Americans eat comes from other lands, including faraway Australia and New Zealand.

Why Local Rules
Environment
There are solid environmental reasons for stocking your refrigerator with locally grown foods. When produce travels the globe, more fossil fuels are used for its transportation—and the burning of these fuels contributes to air pollution and global warming.

Health
There are myriad health benefits, too. “The farther the food comes to you, the more chemicals it has to preserve the freshness and colors,” says Ynes Cabral, assistant to the publication director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Locally grown food has less pesticides, less chemicals, so it’s better for your health.”

Taste
Fruits and vegetables raised locally are generally fresher and more pleasing to your palate. Those raised to withstand long-distance travel too often taste as lifeless as the cardboard box they’re packed in. “The taste is a lot fresher when it’s grown closer to home,” says Tim Schlitzer, executive director of FoodRoutes Conservancy.

Economy
Buying food grown near home also benefits your local economy. “From a standpoint of local economics it makes a lot of sense to buy food locally,” says Schlitzer. “The money you spend locally stays closer to home. Whether it’s through a farmer or local market, the money stays in your area longer.”

When you support your local farms, you help farmers maintain their businesses, save and create jobs, and retain the green space of farmlands.

Local Options
If you want the freshness, health benefits and environmental-friendliness of locally grown food, what are your options? Look for a local farm or dairy that sells food on-site, a farm stand or a farmers’ market. Even in the dead of winter you can likely choose from a range of vegetables.

You can even go a step further and become a real part of a local farm. Farms sometimes offer the opportunity for consumers to buy produce—anything from fruits and vegetables to cheese, eggs or flowers—on a weekly or monthly basis.

And through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), by making regular payments, you can become a shareholder in a farm. CSAs will sometimes ask that members work on the farm for a few hours every week while crops are growing—a great opportunity for breathing fresh air, exercising and learning about farming.

CSAs are a growing movement. According to LocalHarvest, there were approximately 50 CSAs in the US in 1990. Today there are more than 2,200.

City Slickers
If you live downtown without a farm or farmer’s market in sight, you can still benefit from locally grown food. Schlitzer says people in cities are growing their own food in rooftop gardens. And in many big cities, neighborhoods have banded together to lobby their city-council representatives to turn over small, unused lots for shared, community gardens.

You can also shop in your local supermarket, but you need to read labels and ask questions. Find out what produce is in-season where you live and you’ll know what to look for. And remember to tell the grocer you’d like to see more local produce.

Web Tool
To find locally grown produce anywhere in the US, try the cool interactive map feature at localharvest.org. Just enter your zip code and you’ll instantly see nearby farmers’ markets, farms and co-ops.

Buying local is sometimes a little more effort but worth it—because the greens grown around the corner are likely the greenest of all, in more ways than one.

Additional resources:
Phil's Food List (local food directory)

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