If you’ve ever grown your own vegetables, you’d know that it’s surprisingly easy and rewarding! Many food growers know this too; eating fresh, locally grown quality produce is not just possible and easy, but the ideal way to go when it comes to consuming fresh produce in a sustainable way.
Benefits of local sustainable farming
Below are just a few of the many reasons why it’s good to eat food that has been grown locally:
1. Supports local farms: Locally grown and sustainably farmed produce are often owned by small scale, family-run farms. These farmers are dedicated to sustainable practices, meaning they don’t use harsh chemicals and pesticides that degrades their farmland and your health. Instead of buying mass produced produce that came from far away, opt for locally grown produce instead to show your support for the local farmers who grew them.
2. Feel safer with your food: Although locally grown sustainable produce may not look perfectly washed, or presented in pristine packaging, you can feel safe consuming it because they contain fewer pesticides but contain more nutrients. This is because locally grown produce doesn’t travel far to reach the market or your grocery shelves. Coming from a farm perhaps just a few miles away from you live, this produce retains their nutrients by being fresher, and containing less pesticides that non-local produce needs in order to make it through long transport and delivery time.
3. Support Biodiversity: Local farming in the Philippines boasts of so much beautiful produce. From purple corn, to red okra, to superfood malunggay, locally grown food is chock-full of produce native to the land. Preserve the biodiversity unique to the Philippines by showing your support and buying produce available in the Philippines that mass scale food growers can’t imitate.
4. It supports local communities: Buying locally grown produce supports the farms that grew them and the communities that surround them. Supporting your local farmers gives them more money to continue and grow what they’re doing; selling healthy, fresh, and naturally grown produce.
5. Promotes a clean environment: Instead of buying a bunch of carrots that may have travelled overseas to reach your plate, opt for locally grown carrots from a farm that’s just located in the outskirts of your city. Instead of buying produce that takes a lot of fuel for transport, along with extra packaging and added chemicals for preservation, make the greener choice and get locally grown instead. The environmental benefits of local farming are in your power as a consumer. Whenever you choose locally grown produce, you support a more environmentally friendly way of growing and transporting food.
The importance of local farming encourages hardworking farmers to continue doing the sustainable farming practices they do. If everyone begins supporting local farming, people can enjoy safer, more nutritious and environmentally friendly food.
