Eat Here Now
Aug 20,2004 12:00
by
Rachel
I>By Rachel Albert-Matesz, B.A.If you're not bringing home locally grown produce, you're missing out on one of the best-kept secrets. Locally grown, vine-ripened, just picked produce from a local farmer will be fresher, more colorful, flavorful, more nutritious, and usually more economical than imported vegetables and gas ripened fruits from supermarkets and even natural foods stores. Frequenting local farmers' markets, reduces fossil fuel use and supports small farmers who would otherwise be edged out of business by huge agribusinesses that don't care about you, our soil, or our future.
Out-of-season organic produce from a conventional or natural foods supermarket will likely have little chemical contamination, but may not be more nutritious than conventional produce.
Here's why:
1) Mass market organic produce is often grown with high nitrogen fertilizers to accelerate growth, so the fruits and vegetables reach marketable size before they've time to absorb minerals or synthesize nutrients to maximum possible levels.
2) Mass-market organic farms may use the same crop varieties as conventional farms??hybrids selected for productivity, external appearance, and durability in transcontinental transportation, not taste or nutritional value. Mass-market producers rarely select the most nutritious varieties??unless they also happen to be the most durable for shipping.
3) Most mass market organic produce is picked before it's ripe and reaches maximum nutritional value, then shipped 1500 miles before purchase. During that trek it loses nutritional value. Produce can lose 50 percent of its carotene (pro-vitamin A) and 60 percent of its vitamin C within 3 days of being harvested. A week after harvest, these nutrients may be completely gone. Rarely is mass market organic produce in the consumers? mouths within a day of harvest when the nutritional value is greatest (assuming the produce was allowed to ripen fully).
Luckily for us, farmers' markets and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) projects are sprouting up all over the nation. Whether they sell 100% organic produce, chemical free, conventional, or some combination, they're well worth finding and frequenting.
Visit the following web sites to find growers in your neighborhood, city, or town:
Find farms, farmers' markets, and CSAs in your area
www.foodroutes.com
10 REASONS TO BUY LOCAL FOOD
http://www.asapconnections.org/local.htm
FARMERS MARKETS BY STATE
http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm
THE FARMER AS STEWARD
http://www.familyfarmer.org/conference/campany.html
Rachel Albert-Matesz, a freelance food & health writer, healthy cooking coach, cooking instructor, and personal chef based in in Phoenix, AZ. For info about her classes, services and The Garden of Eating A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook (Planetary Press, 2004), visit http://www.thegardenofeatingdiet.com/ or email her at: chefrachel@thegardenofeatingdiet.com.