Local Food challenge for sustainability
Hello! I’m Sara and I’m trying to follow the Local Food challenge for the sustainability. Before starting I spent 2 days to know better seasonal foods.
I found that To eat seasonal food is good for our health;
Eating in season means eating tasty first of all! Choosing fresh vegetables and collecting them according to their natural ripeness will bring an extraordinary and unique richness to your palate. Why is it not the same off-season? The reason is that, even if in season in another country or continent, the zucchini you bring to the table in December will probably have been traveling for days or have been stored for a long time in cold storage. Eating in season also means eating healthy because vegetables do not need tricks to grow, especially if you choose products from organic farming, without unknown additives. In addition, changing food on the table according to the season means automatically diversifying the intake of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients your body needs.
To eat season food is good also quite economic for these reasons:
- The higher costs for out-of-season production , or for the artifices that challenge the adverse climate, for example with additives for cultivation or by using heated bolts,
- Conservation costs , for example in cold rooms where the products are stored for longer or shorter periods waiting to be requested (and sent to destination), and / or
- Transportation costs from the regions (or foreign countries) where the product is in season, to the supermarket below the house.
And at the end, to eat seasonal food is good for our planet;
The higher costs of out-of-season foods are economic but also environmental . A truck that crosses Europe with exotic tomatoes, cold rooms that keep vegetables good even for weeks and production in heated greenhouses while outside it is freezing are all energy-consuming activities that ultimately consume petrol (fossil fuels) and clean air .
Then choose local, nearby, known foods. The short chain is the first and best guarantee that the products you bring to the table are really fresh and genuine.
So I started my challeng comparing the food of a supermarket and local food that I bought at Osnago agricultural market. This market has been founded by Terrealte Consorzio Agricolo e Agrituristico in 2005 to offer to its clients fresh, tasty and local food. Today I finish with this photo and tomorrow I’m comparing Esselunga to Osnago agricoltural market to see how many differences we can find about the variety of food, the origin, the packaging and so on.
See you tomorrow…
