Buy Local: Stay Local

Photo Credit: Cornell University

      Farmers market season is just around the corner. You can already hear the sounds of people bartering over fresh produce and smell pastries being peddled at the stands. It doesn't always come to mind that this time of the community gathering over fresh produce is actually an environmentally and economically sound system.
     A LA times article suggests that farmers markets in America date back to 1979 when a few farmers set up shop in Gardena, Calif.  Since then the idea of bringing the produce straight from the farm to the consumer has blossomed.

Infographic credit: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service

      The Agricultural Marketing Service for the United States Department of Agriculture reported that as of August of 2012 there are 7,864 farmers markets listed in the USDA's national farmers market directory. This is a 9.6 percent increase from 2011 the AMS reports.
      One reason many people choose to buy at farmers markets is to know where their food comes from. For example, in 2001 foot-and-mouth disease spread across England. Brian Halweil, author of "Home Grown, the Case for Local Food in a Global Market," writes that British citizens started asking where their food was coming from, growing wary of food that traveled a long distance.
      This knowing where food comes from is a major advantage of farmer's markets. The farmers can tell you the exact process that their food goes through from planting to selling.
     In 2012 a salmonella outbreak affected cantaloupes causing three people to die and 261 people to become ill. The CDC located the source of the outbreak to a farming operation in Owensville, Ind., Chamberlain Farms Produce, Inc.
     Near the start of the outbreak Amy Melton, manager of the farmers market at Minnetrista in Muncie, Ind. approached the farmer at the market that typically sells cantaloupes. Melton questioned the farmer about his farming practices and was assured that the farmer was using safe processes and allowed him to sell the produce.
     By selling produce at farmers markets, farmers can do their part to protect the environment by reducing the amount of travel the produce has to undergo to reach the consumer.
     What is your thought about farmers markets? Do you go to them? If so what is your favorite part? Leave a comment below letting me know what you think.
    Got an idea of something that you want to see covered? Leave a comment below and I will add it to a list of ideas.