5 Reasons to Support Your Local Farmers

Hi ya’ll! I’m Alicia from Hippy Juice Mama. Thanks Jen for letting me visit with your readers today! I currently live in Texas with my hubby and 2 kids but I was born and raised in Natchez, MS. Natchez is the oldest town on the Mississippi River and where cotton once was king. There are farms all around the area. Huge soy bean and cotton farms down to small homesteads.

Source*

Back when my grandparents where children you mostly grew and raised your own food. There weren’t Wal-Marts or Targets on every corner. When WWII hit people were encouraged to raise victory gardens and provide food for their household.

Source*

Now that grocery stores are everywhere, people are no longer growing and raising their own food, and visiting their local farms less and less. With food being mass produced and so easily available at grocery stores in the U.S. why should you purchase from your local farmer?

 

Check out these 5 reasons why you should support your local farmers:

• Directly Supporting a Family

Small family farms have a hard time competing with large corporations. When you support a local farm you are also supporting a family. They will get better prices for their product and able to keep the farm up and running. Think of all the things that your job helps to provide your family; dance lessons, school tuitions, clothing, medical expenses, etc. Buying your meat and produce from a local farm helps the farmer to provide the same things for his family.

• Supporting Your Local Economy and Creating Local Jobs

Buying locally helps keep money in the community. This has a domino effect and helps other businesses keep going and keeps the community thriving. Local farms employee local residents. When money is spent at big grocery store chains instead of local farms then the money will not flow back into the community.

• You Know Where Your Food is Coming From

There is a lot of concern when it comes to our food lately. More and more big companies are pumping chemicals and hormones into what we eat. If you watch a documentary on big corporations you will see the conditions in which most live stock are forced to live in. When you buy from a local farmer you can actually see where your food is coming from. Is it chemically engineered or coming straight from the ground or an animal? You can talk with the farmer and ask what methods of harvest and preporation is used

• It’s Environmentally Friendly

Farms conserve the soil and protect their water sources. They also have a smaller distribution range so they have trucks driving fewer miles.

• Fresher Foods

The produce you purchase is going to be fresher than what you buy at the grocery store. The produce in stores has been picked, distributed to trucking companies, hauled all over the country, and then finally makes its way to your grocery store. It may have been a few weeks after being picked before its ready for purchase. Whereas when you buy from a farmer it may have just been picked that morning.  Fruits and vegetables taste better when you eat them in season and wait until they are at their peak ripeness before being picked. The fresher the produce the more nutrients.

 

 Source*

This is the perfect time of year to visit a farm and check out all that they have. Go out to a local farm today and pick up some fresh meat and produce and hug a farmer! Do you support your local farmers? What is your favorite thing to buy from your local farms and farmers markets?

*Images are from Bowies Farmer’s Market Facebook Page and are used with permission.