by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: July 24, 2009   Last Updated: November 04, 2009

The local economy benefits when consumers buy locally. Less fuel is used in its transport and thus toxic gases spewing out into the atmosphere, less hands have been handling the produce and less work in getting it to your table from the farm or garden means less overall use of natural resources and less loss of valuable nutrients that contribute to the general welfare of those utilizing the food. The overall effect of shortening the distance from growing site to your food cart means less effort has been put forth in feeding you and your family and that means a savings for the environment.

Your money has been spent wisely and you are not only benefiting yourself and your local economy, you have done so with a minimum of effort and in the long haul the environment benefits. Yet there are drawbacks to buying only locally grown food and the biggest one is price. Now that locally grown food is more in demand because of the environmental band wagon it is becoming more expensive. Farmers are seeing buyers flock to their stalls and they are pricing their food accordingly. This is understandable, but when you only have a certain amount of money for food, money wise, buying the reduced packets of salads at Kroger's, as one example, may make more sense.

Another consideration is that simply because the food is grown locally does not mean it has been grown under the best circumstances. It could be that the food grown on an approved and closely monitored site is far cleaner and has been grown in soil devoid of toxic chemicals. The economy being what it is today, we must consider all angles when considering how, when and where to purchase our food. Trying to envision our lives being lived as they once were lived when people grew their own food and swapped with neighbors when they produced more than they could personally use, is gone forever.

The health of our environment, as well as our health depends less on reverting back to past ways of living and more on how to adapt to technological advances that show us newer and better ways of coping with feeding our families. How our food is grown, the type of fertilizer used, the soil it is grown in, are important considerations. Some locations are not equipped to grow food since their soils are chemically tainted or watering sources are toxic and their food will not be up to what is shipped in from places that make it their business to grow healthy food. For these areas, locally grown food is not their best option.

The above are considerations only and probably do not involve the overall effect of locally grown food vs. food shipped in food from far away places. Globally speaking, however, locally grown food means food grown in one's own country and again, many of the poorer countries are not able to do this. Their soil may be too poor, water sources are not available or the topography is too mountainous. All kinds of problems exist that may make locally grown food impossible.

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