Well, we do...
A study in Iowa found that a regional diet consumed 17 times less oil and gas than a typical diet based on food shipped across the country. Foods grown locally don’t require energy-intensive transportation or storage.
Fresh food just tastes better! Most local produce has been picked within 24 hours. It comes to you ripe, fresh, and with its full flavor and nutrients unlike supermarket food that may have been picked weeks or months before. Local foods can also be bred for taste, rather than to survive the abuse of shipping or industrial harvesting.
Eating local helps you “put a face” on your food and appreciate our region’s seasons. You get to know your farmers and learn how they grow your food, and you get to know how a real summer tomato or winter squash tastes!
Choosing local food also helps protect our planet’s biodiversity. While many large-scale commercial farmers practice monoculture, planting a single crop over their acreage, local farmers are not limited to varieties bred for high yield or long-distance shipping. They often plant a diverse selection of produce as well as heirloom varieties that could otherwise die out if they did not. This is important because if we limit ourselves to raising only one or two cultivars of wheat, corn, or potatoes, for example, we risk losing entire crops if they become susceptible to viruses or other threats. Local farmers, however, help protect our future food supply. Learn more about the benefits of biodiversity here.
To have fresh, local, sustainable produce, we have to support our local farmers. And when you join a CSA, that’s exactly what you do.
Direct sales to community members who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance allow for growers to receive fair trade for their crops, obtain some financial security, and gain relief from much of the burden of marketing.
This partnership between the community and its farmers helps increase self-sufficiency by reducing reliance on long-distance food, and it also keeps more money within the community which can help improve our local quality of life.
When your family subscribes to receive fresh produce directly from local family farms, you partner in sustainability for Nevada and our city's local economy.
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