Choose Local Produce For Optimum Health

Posted on Jul 19, 2020


Do you look for fresh foods at your local market? If so, you’re doing yourself a favor because local produce is good for a person’s health. When produce is grown locally, that means it was grown within a couple miles from the store or market where you’re shopping– rather than grown several time zones away in distant lands, perhaps across continents. Food coming from far away could easily get contaminated as it travels many, many miles.

Fruits and veggies lose their optimal nutritional value as soon as they are picked. The vitamins in them begin to decrease as they’re exposed to air, artificial lights and temperature changes. Oftentimes, food picked in a faraway country, such as Colombia or China, can “sit” for days before it’s delivered by boat, truck or other form of transport to the place where you buy it. Thus, you get the food when it’s not at its peak state. Local farms, however, are “just down the road,” so they can pick their crops one morning and have their produce to you later that afternoon– you can’t get much fresher than that!

Local produce doesn’t need to be artificially ripened using gases. It doesn’t need to travel thousands of miles to get to you, turning bland in the process. Instead, local produce has a high nutritional value and typically tastes delicious.

When you “buy local,” that’s better for the environment because the carbon footprint to get the food to you is much less than if it were flown from overseas. Furthermore, local produce helps preserve green space and farmland in your area. When it’s local, you’re supporting your local economy, too.

Looking for local produce near Forest Lake, MN? Try this site: https://www.localharvest.org/forest-lake-MN

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