Enjoy exceptional taste & freshness

• Taste the difference in fresh, local food and judge for yourself!
• Premium Taste. Locally grown fruits and vegetables are usually sold within 24 hours of being harvested. It's crisp, sweet and loaded with flavor. Produce picked and eaten at the height of ripeness has exceptional flavor and, when handled properly, is packed with nutrients.
• Maximum Freshness. By choosing local produce at farm stands, farmers markets, pick-your-own farms and grocery stores, you pay for taste, not transportation and packaging.
• Unique Varieties. Local farmers often grow a large assortment of unique varieties of products to provide the most flavorful choices throughout the season. Local farmers can offer produce varieties bred for taste and freshness rather than for shipping and long shelf life.
• FOOD TRAVELS ON AVERAGE 1,500 to 2500 MILES FROM FARM TO TABLE. [1]
• Most fresh fruits and vegetables produced in the U.S. are shipped from California, Florida, and Washington. [2]
• Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 14 days before being placed on supermarket shelves [3], and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. And this is when taking into account only US grown products! Those distances are substantially longer when we take into consideration produce imported from Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America, and other places.
• During the 4 to 14 day delay from harvest to dinner table, sugars turn to starches, plant cells shrink, and produce loses its vitality.

Support a clean environment and benefits wildlife

• A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued.
• Small, independent farms can encourage plant diversity that enriches the landscape, reduces soil degradation, decreases agricultural run-off into rivers and streams, and provides habitat for wildlife.
• Good stewards of the land grow cover crops to prevent erosion and replace nutrients used by their crops. Cover crops also capture carbon emissions and help combat global warming. Farmers who practice conservation tillage can sequester 12 to 14% of the carbon emitted by vehicles and industry.
• The patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, ponds and buildings - is the perfect environment for many beloved species of wildlife.

Local food preserves genetic diversity

• In the modern industrial agricultural system, varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously and withstand harvesting equipment; for a tough skin that can survive packing and shipping; and for an ability to have a long shelf life in the store. Only a handful of hybrid varieties of each fruit and vegetable meet those rigorous demands, so there is little genetic diversity in the plants grown.
• Local farms, in contrast, grow a huge number of varieties to provide a long season of harvest, an array of eye-catching colors, and the best flavors.
• Many varieties are heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation, because they taste good. These old varieties contain genetic material from hundreds or even thousands of years of human selection; they may someday provide the genes needed to create varieties that will thrive in a changing climate.

Strengthen your local economy

• FAMILY FARMERS ARE THE HEART OF AMERICA'S RURAL COMMUNITIES.
• Buying local food keeps your dollars circulating in your community.
• Only 18 cents of every dollar, when buying at a large supermarket, go to the grower. 82 cents go to various unnecessary middlemen. Cut them out of the picture and buy your food directly from your local farmer.
• With each local food purchase, you ensure that more of your money spent on food goes to the farmer.
• Local family farmers spend their money with local merchants. The money stays in town where it benefits everyone and builds a stronger local economy. Independent, family-owned farms supply more local jobs and contribute to the local economy at higher rates than do large, corporate-owned farms.
• Banner: BUYING LOCAL IS THIS EASY
• Find a farmer, farmers' market, farm stand, CSA, restaurant, retailer, or other local food outlet near you. See links at top of page
• Shop at your local farmer’s market or farm stand for the freshest, best tasting food available. It is easy to find local food.
• Encourage your local grocery stores and area restaurants to purchase more of their products from local farmers.

Support family farms today for OUR tomorrow

• Support local, environmentally-sound producers.
• By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow, and that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, and abundant food
• Together family-owned, local farms form a decentralized system, so there less of a chance that contaminated meat will reach large portions of the public. Buy local whenever possible.
• Buy from sustainable farmers. Farmers practicing sustainable farming techniques seek to minimize harmful pesticides or fertilizers; instead, as stewards of the land, they work to improve the health of the soil, to protect the wellbeing of livestock, and to preserve local water quality.

Safeguard your family's health

• Knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown or raised enables you to choose safe food from farmers who avoid or reduce their use of chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, or genetically modified seed in their operations. Buy food from local farmers you trust.
• Buy pasture-raised animal products whenever possible. Pasture-raised meat, poultry, and dairy products are lower in fat and higher in vitamins, essential fatty acids.

Keep farmers farming to maintain open space & rural character;

• As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely.
• You have probably enjoyed driving out into the country and appreciated the lush fields of crops, the meadows full of wildflowers, the picturesque red barns. That landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially viable.
• When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive about preserving the agricultural landscape.
• Local food doesn't have to travel far. This reduces carbon dioxide emissions and packing materials.

Foster strong communities

• Getting to know the farmers who grow your food builds relationships based on understanding and trust, the foundation of strong communities.
• When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection.
• Knowing the farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food.
• In many cases, it gives you access to a farm where your children and grandchildren can go to learn about nature and agriculture.
• Relationships built on understanding and trust can thrive.

Local food keeps your taxes in check

• Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas suburban development costs more than it generates in taxes, according to a recent Orange County Cost of Community Services Study.
• On average, for every $1 in revenue raised by residential development, Orange County must spend $1.24 on services, thus requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue raised by farm, forest, or open space, Orange County only spends 72 cents on services.

  Citations

• "In the United States, food typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to plate, as much as 25 percent farther than In 1980" (Brian Halweil. 2002. Home Grown. Worldwatch Institute.).
• USDA. 2002. "Leading Producer States by Commodity Groups, 2001." Economic Research Service Web site. url: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/FarmIncome/firkdmu.htm.
• Mary S. Choate. No date given. "A Good Tomato in Winter, Where?" Co-op Food Stores Web site. url: http://www.coopfoodstore.com/news/Archives/arch_nutatt/seasonal/tomatoes.html.
• USDA. 2002. "Number of farms, land in farms, and value of farm real estate, 1910-2002." Economic Research Service Web site. url: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/farmincome/finfidmu.htm).
• U.S. Census Bureau. 2002. "Detailed Occupation by Race, Hispanic Origin and Sex." U.S. Census Bureau Web site. url: http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/eeo/eeojobs.pl.
• USDA. 2002. "Farm income and balance sheet statistics in constant U.S. dollars, 1929-2002." Economic Research Service Web site. url: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/farmincome/finfidmu.htm.
• Elitzak, Howard. 2000. "Food Marketing Costs." Economic Research Service Web site. url: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/foodreview/septdec00/FRsept00e.pdf.
• Krebs, Al. 2002. Agribusiness Examiner. Issue 144. url: http://www.ea1.com/CARP/agbiz/144.htm.
• USDA. 2002. "Farmer's Market Facts." Agricultural Marketing Services Web site. url: http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/facts.htm.

•   Credit. Growing for Market and ??

 

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