There is a growing interest in sourcing local food products, and it’s reflected in communities all around the world. We have recently found that consumers prefer locally grown when freshness is held constant and are willing to pay more for a product from a closer location.
When you go to a farmer’s market you have a unique opportunity to interact directly with the farmers, producers, and artisans. It’s also about being community and conscious-minded.
Where else but at the farmer’s market can you buy groceries direct from the farmer – from the person who grew, nurtured, and made the product. There you not only get to meet the maker and the farmer, you can ask about how and where it’s grown or made, how best to store or use it. That’s connection to people and the environment right there.
It’s an experience that cannot be replicated. Farmer’s markets could be considered the historical flagship of local food systems, and their numbers in many countries has grown significantly over the last decade, but more recently during the pandemic that forced everyone to return home to their communities.
Along these lines this New York Times article about Helena Norberg-Hodge, a Byron Bay local and Australian activist-scholar is a must read. She has been arguing for localism since the 1970s, and you’ll love her vision and reasons for optimism being planted in otherwise dark times.
Click here to read the New York Times article.
