Five Environmental Benefits of Supporting Your Local Farmers Market
We love farmers markets, how ‘bout you? When you bite into a juicy apple, load up on fresh lettuce, or choose from an assortment of locally made jams, you do more than check off an item on your summer bucket list. You stimulate your local economy, support healthy communities, and promote sustainability. To celebrate National Farmers Market Week, we made a list of our favorite ways farmers markets help keep Georgia clean, green, and beautiful. Continue reading to find out more!
1. Reduced Packaging Waste
It’s easy to bring your own bags to the grocery store, as well as engage in other waste reduction measures, but when you attend farmers markets, you become part of a larger effort to decrease our collective footprint. Since farmers travel locally to sell their produce, they eliminate the need for shipping and packing facilities, and the packaging needs that come along with them. You also have a much greater chance of picking your selections directly out of a crate or basket, which helps cut down on individual bags and containers.
2. Reduced Food Waste
According to recent statistics, 12% of fruit and 11.5% of vegetables in traditional grocery stores never make it off the shelf. This happens for several reasons—larger stores buy in bulk, and not everything sells before its expiration date. Stores also reject shipments before they even make it inside because of cosmetic imperfections or problems that occur during transport. When you shop at a farmers market, you participate in a smaller scale of operations, which means more produce gets consumed.
3. Farmland Preservation
When you support local farmers, you make their livelihoods possible. This bolsters your local economy, makes your community stronger, and saves healthy farmland from destruction. When farmers struggle, they often have to make the difficult decision to sell their land to local developers or larger agricultural businesses. The former replace fields and trees with buildings and pavement, and the latter often swap sustainable farming practices with large scale, inhumane ones that harm animals and our fragile ecosystem.
4. Wildlife Protection
Small-scale farms are much more likely to conserve biodiversity, or the different kinds of flora and fauna found in an area. By employing sustainable practices like crop rotation and pesticide alternatives, they protect local water resources, improve soil quality, and create habitats for birds, bees, butterflies, fish, and more.
5. Greater Accessibility
Farmers markets make it possible for everyone to access affordable, nutritious food. Fresh, seasonal produce sold directly from the grower itself is often easy on the wallet. In addition, since many farmers sell their crops at in-town parks and other central locations, people can walk or ride their bikes to visit them, reducing fuel consumption.
Now, head on over to your local stand, and let us know what tastes good!