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Missouri Local Produce- The Blueprint To A Healthy Nation

By Donna Wagner


We know we need to eat from a rainbow of colors, and I'm not talking about the bright colored cereal pieces in a box of fruity loops. Most produce is best eaten immediately off the tree, vine, plant or bush. Every hour it sits, it loses a certain number of its vitamins, nutrients, antioxidants and minerals. You want Missouri local Produce that is as fresh as possible.

Growing numbers of shoppers are disillusioned with mass-produced food for a variety of reasons. They want to know where their food comes from and to support home-grown suppliers, especially in more rural areas. Tasteless, out of season food jam-packed with additives wrapped in layers of packaging does little for bodily health, confidence in suppliers' ethics, or the purse strings. This article delves into the benefits of consuming locally produced fresh yield.

Benefits of Home-grown Produce; locally sourced yield is considered to be more delicious, nutritious and fresher, than harvest transported in from foreign places. This belief is supported by none other than Jamie Oliver whose campaign to introduce good quality, locally sourced food into Britain's schools is attracting the attention of environmentalists and school administrators worldwide.

Adding to the call for more emphasis on home-grown crops are the 100 Mile Diet founders, who successfully shopped locally in farmers markets for a year to prove that a healthy nutritious diet without the environmental cost of transport is possible. When consumers shop locally, family-owned farms benefit, encouraging investment in organic farming practices and innovative methods such as glass house farming to grow out of season fruits and vegetables.

What is the benefit of buying natively and freshly harvested yields? Buying natively does three things: Keeps more money in your native community, provides the biggest nutritional bang for your buck and reduces your carbon footprint on the earth. As mentioned above, buying natively gives you the biggest nutritional bang for your buck. The food reaches your table faster than by any other method. The sooner you eat something that has been picked or harvested, the more nutritional benefit you get.

Greenhouses yield less flavorsome fruit and veg than that grown on good farmland. Livestock that is solely reared outdoors in good conditions produces tastier meat than animals forced to live in barns. Wild fish has more flavor than farmed fish; again, this is largely due to diet and fresher water.

The habit is also environmentally-friendly. Packaging is an area many people have an issue with. Supermarket food packaging burdens the environment from manufacturing which uses precious energy and damaging chemicals to the vast amount of waste that ends up in landfills. Fresh, home-grown produce, on the other hand, has minimal, less flashy packaging. Often, all it is a plain paper bag. This not only has less impact on the flavor of the food, but it also reduces the use of natural resources.

Environmentally Friendly- Locally sourced food helps the environment in many ways. Most supermarket food will travel hundreds of miles to get to your shopping basket. The obvious impact of this on the environment is the amount of fuel used. Harvest straight from the field, orchard or sea dramatically reduces not only fuel pollution but all the other harmful chemicals used in the storage and transportation process.




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