By I’ve been seeing it everywhere.
“Farm to Table”
“Sourced Locally”
“Locally Grown”
I know that it must mean something good if it’s being marketed so strongly – but that good? I wanted to know exactly what the “good” impact was. It started a couple of weeks ago when my boyfriend and I booked a table for restaurant week at a place in Center City called Russet which was 100% farm to table. I had heard the ingredients were fresh and as we sat down for each course, we learned about where each food was sourced.
We were served a variety of cheeses from Pennsylvania, meat from Bucks County, vegetables from Gap, PA. You could tell the difference of the absolute freshness compared with other meals.
I then went to the Old City farmer’s market as I do every Wednesday. However this time – I focused on where exactly each vendor came from. All Pennsylvania.
When I did a bit of research, I learned, as anticipated, that these choices were good for the environment. Really good. And really TASTY!
Did you know that some of the most imported foods into our countries are fruits and vegetables? These foods are typically shipped hundreds if not THOUSANDS of miles to reach our grocery stores.
When a food has this many miles under its belt to arrive into our mouths, that means that a significant amount of fossil fuels were burned to get there. Think of these foods potentially flying in an airplane, driving in a truck to a distribution center, entering another truck to the grocery store and then another to drive home with us to make for dinner.
What happens when we choose locally sourced or farm to table?
Those food miles and carbon emissions are cut drastically. Scccooooreeeee!
For the farmer’s market – it’s one simple drive to the farmer’s market from the farm and I walk to there to pick it up and walk home.
Less fossil fuels used = less carbon dioxide into our atmosphere which is one of the greenhouse gases that traps heat into our atmosphere.
By eating locally, we are having a positive impact against climate change and global warming by not attributing our eating to massive amounts of carbon being put into the air to meet our dietary needs.
The majority of the food that comes from a farmer’s market is typically from a … you guessed it….farm! By supporting these local farms, it’s saving amazing land that could otherwise be developed for industrial or commercial use. The truth is, we need this land to attract types of biodiversity and allow for animals to live, plants to grow and nourishing agricultural practices to endure.
As you can imagine, there are NUMEROUS other benefits for eating locally, these foods typically,
- Do not have preservatives – it’s not traveling too far so these are not needed to preserve it’s freshness!
- Do not have pesticides as large scale agricultural farms do
- Are seasonal (fresher, more nutritious foods)
Where’s your favorite place that you know sources locally? The one that comes to my mind is Honeygrow…
I LOVE EATING (who doesn’t?!) and now I’m trying to be more mindful of where my food comes from. Next time you see that there is a farmer’s market nearby in your hood, grab your reusable bag, check it out, and hopefully cross a few things off of your grocery list!
XO,
The Sustennial
