There’s a new trend among environmentally conscious eaters: become a locavore. What’s a locavore? It’s someone who eats food grown within 100 miles of their home.
There are several advantages to eating locally. You’ll be supporting local agriculture and pumping money into the local economy. Your food will be fresher, and some studies have indicated that local, conventionally grown produce may contain more nutrients than organically grown food trucked in from far off lands.
Eating from nearby farms can reduce the number of trucks on the road and conserve energy in the form of packing and storing. Fresh eggs, for example, generally have more nutrients and are often cheaper than a dozen Styrofoam packed ones and don’t need to be kept in energy-hogging refrigerated open shelving at the grocery store.
You’ll cut down on your trash while reducing pollution.
How do you get started? Visit local farmer’s markets on weekends. Discover what foods are local specialties, and put them on the menu. Choose locally grown blueberries instead of bananas from South America, and eat turnip greens from a community garden instead of spinach from another state.
Some locavores pledge to eat food grown within 100 feet of their home, and plan big gardens. That may be extreme, but anyone can grow at least some of their own food. Tomatoes grow well in containers, even on apartment balconies, and the taste can’t be beat. Grow fresh herbs in a windowsill, or choose edible flowers such as nasturtiums and violets for your landscaping.
Extend your local eating plan throughout the year by learning to preserve summer’s bounty, and freeze or dry fruit for the winter.
Make just a few small changes, and you’ll be saving the earth while eating more nutritiously in no time!
[...] Be Green Info brought you a story about locavores – consumers committed to eating locally grown food, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from [...]