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 There are countless reasons why buying local food is both rewarding and delicious, including enjoying the taste of fresh food, improved health and nutrition, environmental stewardship, support for family farms and rural communities, and ensuring animal welfare.
There is also significant peace of mind in knowing where your food comes from. One of the biggest benefits to buying food locally is having someone to answer questions about how it was grown and raised. What goes into that chicken?
Can we be certain that the beef that is now steak lived a life without suffering? How do we know those eggs are fresh?
Developing a relationship with local farmers gives you an "in" with your local food system. At our farm, you can get answers to questions like: What do our cows eat? What’s the best way to prepare a whole chicken?
You are welcome to tour the farm to see where your food
comes from. We are thrilled to share our knowledge and experience with our customers. Ask about the challenges we face and what we are doing to address them. It does not have to be complicated. Ask about the weather! All of us will be pleased to talk about how the season is going and how that affects the food we raise. Knowing local farmers can go a long way to simplifying buying local.
 A significant reason to buy local is to keep Food Miles to a minimum. "Food miles" refers to the distance a food item travels from the farm to your home. Most of today’s
grocery store items that we eat travel an average of 1,500 miles from the farm to our table. About 40% of our fruit is produced overseas. Broccoli, despite being grown in the U.S., still travels an average of 1,800 miles to the supermarket. Notably, 9% of our red meat comes from foreign countries, some as far away as Australia and New Zealand. A tremendous amount of energy including fossil fuel is burned to transport food such long distances, meanwhile releasing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and other pollutants that likely contribute to global climate change, acid rain, smog, and air and sea pollution. The refrigeration required to keep our fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meats from spoiling during their long journeys burn up even more fossil fuel. In contrast, your local and regional food systems produce about 17 times less carbon dioxide.
"How else will buying local benefit you versus buying
all of your groceries at the supermarket," you ask? When
you purchase locally grown products from Farm Sweet Farm
LLC:
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 You can visit the farm anytime. You will know how the food was raised. You can connect directly with the land on which your food was grown. The more you feel connected to the people who produce what you eat, the better we all preserve our regional food heritage.
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In these times when obesity and
diet related illnesses are on the rise, replacing
heavily processed foods with local grown farm products
may improve your health. -
You will know the food was raised as nature intended, without growth hormones, without antibiotics, and without unnecessary preservatives and processing. -
Dollars spent close to home tend to stay close to home. Keeping local farmers in business supports local community economies. And small farms become more sustainable when fewer middlemen (large corporations) cut into
farm profits. -
The food will travel directly from our local farm directly to your home, keeping Food Miles to a minimum. The food will not be shipped thousands of miles across the U.S. consuming additional energy and fossil fuel.
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