During a Pandemic, Does it Matter if Food is Locally Grown?

While the lockdown of our nation can leave us feeling as if we are living in end times, the sun continues to shine and nature responds. 

I dream of gardening but am realistic enough to know I can not provide for myself on any kind of sustainable level. That’s why every spring I exchange vows with with my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farmer. 

He vows to use resilient methods to grow nutritious food to the best of his ability, and I vow to support his efforts financially. 

In the middle of a pandemic, I have never been more grateful for this relationship. 

The idea of going into a store and purchasing worldwide imports causes me a bit of anxiety for a host of reasons. When I try to talk logic to my fear mongering self, and track down whether the “what-ifs” are probable, I make a discovery. 

The origin of my particular fear––too many unknown variables. Food grown, handled and shipped passes through many hands and ports with little oversight to ensure its safety. 

In a world ripe with pandemic, it seems like some sci-fi thriller set-up that we now live in a nation that is dependent on other countries to secure our nutrition and health. 

But hey, I don’t want to focus on the negative aspects our lock down especially when there are so many really great options to get food closer to home. 

I hear your subversive grumbling under your breath, words like expensive, elitist. Yes, I know we have all been stressed by uncertainty, job loss, bills, and almost insurmountable stress. Right now, we all swim in the same milieu. 

However, I’m here to remind you, the decision to buy local matters because it helps to create a resilient local community. A resilient community, my friend, is exactly what we need right now. 

Your decision to buy local has the potential to prevent degrading of the ecological integrity of the earth, which in the long run, has the potential to support health. Our health, and that of the planet. 

The decision to buy local, helps restore integrity in the food system. Aligning with a farmer is a mutual relationship, a vow of faith and of caring and responsibility toward each other and toward the earth. 

The decision to buy local, reconnects us with where our food is grown and how it is produced. Since we are all dependent on the earth,  how it is produced is a really big deal. 

The decision to buy local means you are helping to preserve farmland while creating economic opportunities for farmers in your local community. Farmers in your community, even if they aren’t in your backyard, protect the soil, prevent run off, protect watersheds and wildlife. 

The decision to buy local means you are directly contributing to your local economy. Your farmer receives the full retail value of each dollar you spend. It’s not being eaten up with bioprocessing, transportation, fuel and packing costs. No, thanks to you, it will likely stay in the community where the farmer lives. 

The decision to buy local will prevent the extinction of a vast variety of food. By now you know the food typically found in the supermarket is narrowed down to those mass-produced, industry standards that can withstand transportation and maintain shelf stability. The juicy heirlooms with thin skin and that bruise with jostling, don’t make the cut. If they aren’t sold, they aren’t grown and eventually die out. 

The decision to buy local will allow you to encounter foods that are authentically different in physical qualities including appearance, taste and color. 

The decision to buy local means you will get food that tastes good naturally. Local foods are fresher, more flavorful, and promise more nutrients than their fatigued world travelers from exotic and distant locales. 

The decision to buy local means you reduce your dependance on non-renewable energy sources and you contribute to cleaner air. No matter how it travels, transport of food requires fossil fuels, a major source of air pollution. It also requires the use of, and expenditures for, publicly funded infrastructure. 

The decision to buy local can save you money and preserve family and farming traditions. 

Yes it will require more work on your part, but preparing food is a sharable skill as is the pleasure of eating it.