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Sweet Earth: How important is it for you to buy locally grown food?For more on farming in the Puget Sound region, listen to KUOW's special series, Sweet Earth: Lessons from the Land.
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9 Answers
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Important enough that we bought a CSA (community supported agriculture) share this year from a heritage farm that is transitioning to organic. We bought in initially to support this local, family owned and run farm that's been in the farmer's family for 150 years, but it actually worked out cheaper for us than if we had bought produce week-by-week because of all the flooding and hikes in fuel prices. I like knowing the people who grow our food, that we are supporting a local business, and that we are helping keep agriCULTURE (as opposed to agribusiness) alive. Even though the share price is going up by $100 this next season, we will buy in again.
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It is becoming much more important. However, at chain grocery stores, at least, it is often difficult to identify (at least with confidence or accuracy) locally grown food. Moreover, such a large component of food purchases are products that are not "grown" but are manufactured, processed, bottled, canned, frozen, whatever, that moving towards locally grown foods can comprise a relatively small percentage of overall food expenditures. Nevertheless, I have found the practice rewarding, and the food by-and-large discernably better!
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My family buys "organic" whenever possible; we're pretty strict about it. When we shop at the local farmer's markets or local quality grocery stores (we like Town & Country Markets) -- we specifically look for vendor's who promote healthy, sustainable food and farm practices. We go to extra lengths to find Washington-Grown produce before buying California-Grown. We tend to avoid purchasing produce and/or meat that has been shipped from South America or Mexico. We also tend to buy from local fisheries. But we do buy Alaska-sourced fish that has not been frozen because the fishery there is supposed to be very clean (i.e. lower mercury poisoning than even most meats).
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Not at all. I care how it tastes.
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If the option is readily available, it's quite important. The "I care how it tastes" answer above is a great example of why we're so screwed in this country on so many issues. It's unabashedly—even proudly—self-centered. Sick.
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Not at all, though it kinda feels good to support local folks, I won't go out of my way to do it.
As I mentioned in the previous question, I've read/heard that local food is actually more painful environmentally (fuel-inefficient pickup truckful of produce vs. fuel efficient train).
This is worth a read:
http://conniff.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/dont-buy-local/
"Buy Local" has a real danger of potentially being "environmental theater" - pretty to look at, but not meaningfully moving the needle (or even potentially doing more harm than good).
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When products are grown and shipped thousands of miles, you tend to get fruits and vegetables that can be picked a week before they are displayed, don't bruise when they ship, and look attractive to a buyer a week later. These tend to be hard and flavorless, not the tasty and juicy kind. Tomatoes and Strawberries are great examples. This is because the varieties that ship well win out over all the ones that can't handle the shipping, storage, and refrigeration.
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It is becoming much more important. However, at chain grocery stores, at least, it is often difficult to identify (at least with confidence or accuracy) locally grown food. Moreover, such a large component of food purchases are products that are not "grown" but are manufactured, processed, bottled, canned, frozen, whatever, that moving towards locally grown foods can comprise a relatively small percentage of overall food expenditures. Nevertheless, I have found the practice rewarding, and the local stuff by-and-large discernibly better!
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For me, food shopping is a necessary evil. Unfortunately, there is little opportunity where I live to buy local. Since a big benefit to buying local (in addition to freshness) is the reinvestment in your community, my inclination is that I would, if given the opportunity.
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