Benefits of local eating

It tastes great! Many foods lose their peak flavor quickly with time and refrigeration. Once you have tasted fresh local tomatoes, berries, and apples you may have trouble going back to long-distance produce.

It’s healthy. Like flavor, many nutrients break down over time and with processing. So the fresher your food is, the more nutritious it will be.

It’s safe. Local food has to meet the same health standards that shipped food does. And because it changes hands fewer times there may be fewer opportunities for contamination. Still, whether your food is local or comes from far away, you should follow safe handling and preparation practices.

You can know more about it. When you buy your food direct from the farmer you can ask about specific production practices you care about (such as use of pesticides or hormones or how the animals are confined). Even if you buy it at a grocery store or restaurant you can usually find more information on where and how local food was grown and processed.

It’s fun. Visiting farmers’ markets and farms can be an entertaining activity for the whole family. Many young children are also more likely to try and enjoy foods that they helped pick or that they associate with a specific farmer.

It helps local farmers. Do you like seeing well-tended farmland nearby? That land will only stay open as long as the farmers have a profitable market for what they grow.

It helps the earth. In general, local food uses less energy for transport than food that is shipped from far away. Many farmers who market locally also choose to use ecological growing practices such as rotational grazing and Integrated Pest Management.

It helps communities. When you buy local food the dollars you spend stay in the area, in addition to helping local farmers and preserving working lands.

It’s easy! Wisconsin is blessed with farmers who grow wonderful vegetables, fruits, dairy products, meats, and many other products; and with many farmers’ markets, CSA farms, and other places for consumers to find local food. Many supermarkets and restaurants also carry some local foods. We’re not asking you to give up imported foods like coffee or chocolate or to change your diet in a big way. We think you will find making 10% of your food local way easier than pie!