Keeping it Local: Why it matters

Any delicatessen, restaurant or supermarket worth their salt these days will go to great lengths to highlight their local produce. Farm to kitchen delivery businesses are booming and farmers’ markets have never been more popular with consumers. So, what’s all the fuss about? It’s more expensive, right? And does it really matter if your strawberries were grown just down the road or imported from Spain?

To some it will matter — and matter a great deal and the good news is, there is a growing awareness of just how important it is to buy locally. In fact, the reasons are legion and the more we buy from our local producers, the better the price will become in the long term.

As for the benefits, well, where do we begin?

Let’s start with freshness. It stands to reason that buying fresh produce is going to be fresher — in some instances, maybe even just hours old. So, let’s say potatoes shipped in from abroad may take three or four days to get the supermarket and then sit on the shelves for another 24 to 48 hours — so you’d have to say the ones from the farm down the road on sale either direct or in have got to taste better? And, if there’s the option, you could even go along and pick them yourself and make it a family task — it can work wonders for getting the kids to eat their greens if they’ve selected them themselves!

Then there is the packaging — or lack of — if you’re buying fresh and locally, there’s no need for plastics that are no biodegradable and may end up harming wildlife in our oceans as millions of tonnes currently do.

Aside from the obvious benefits listed above, buying locally will help preserve the local economy and, eventually, help it grow stronger and perhaps even thrive. This will help keep a community buoyant, increase local jobs and help forge something that many people long for but few actually have — a genuine community spirit. And the benefits are like ripples in a pond with local businesses requiring local services and goods to help them prosper and if done well, it is everyone who can benefit in the long run.

And it really does matter that you know exactly where your goods are coming from. Imported items whether clothes, goods or food from countries that don’t have fantastic human rights records could have used exploitative means at some stage of their production — and foods produced on your doorstep are likely to proudly tell you their processes from start to finish.

And we haven’t even touched on transportation and the huge benefits of less fossil fuel use in getting the goods to the place you can purchase them.

Fresher, less pollution and creating and maintaining a community and, in the long run or even already, cheaper prices. What’s not to like about buying locally?