Not only does eating local mean more money for your local economy, locally grown produce is fresher and thus more nutritious. Nutritional value declines with time. The less time produce spends on a truck or grocery store shelf, the more nutritious it is for you.
Eating local is better for air quality and conserves energy too. Reducing the miles that a piece of lettuce or chicken has to travel from the ground to your plate reduces fuel and energy consumption.
Here are a few habits to get into when trying to add more locally produced food to your diet:
1. Shop weekly at your local farmers market or farm stand all year round.
2. Grow your own food in your yard, roof, balcony, or community garden plot
3. Buy from local grocers and co-ops committed to stocking local food
4. Support restaurants and food vendors that buy locally produced food
5. Preserve, freeze, can, dry or pickle food from the season to eat all year round
6. Visit farms in your area
7. You can also join a local Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) group. This is basically a food subscription service; you pay upfront and the CSA provides a weekly shipment of just-picked vegetables grown at a local farm. Some CSA's also offer fruit, meats, honey and cheeses as well. More info: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ just enter your zip code to find a CSA near where you live.
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