08 February 2013

buying local


The concept of buying local makes sense to me on a couple scales.  Shorter distances for the food in transit means less emissons.  Less shipping time should mean it's fresher, too, right?  You also have the ability to support the local community and smaller farms instead of large companies.

I assumed in buying local that I was going to have to start investigating my labels like crazy, ask shop keepers about origins of items and frequent farmer's markets.  In fact, we made one quick decision to utilise Aussie Farmers Direct and it's been heaps easier.  I don't have to question the origins of anything, they send you magazines where you can "meet" the farmers, and it's even easier for me since it's delivered to my door step.  Cost is slightly higher for some of the items, but many are very competitively priced.  The quality of everything has been overwhelming.  We are able to get fruit and vegetables which taste better and are nicer, and last for ages.  It turns out that one of my friends supplies the stone fruit for their fruit packs and I love that.  He says that he can't emphasise enough how good it is that the boxes are hand-packed.  That wasn't a selling point for me, but he knows the fruit business better than I do!

We get a fruit and vegetable pack delivered fortnightly.  When I tell friends about this service, the fact that I don't choose what's in the box seems to deter quite a few of them.  I admit that it took a bit of getting used to, but I barely even notice it now.  It actually really helped us get out of the rut of buying the same vegetables all the time, got us to try new recipes and forced us to only eat produce that is in season.

This topic of buying local will be continued at some point...the rest is a work in progress as I try to sort out which shops are best to get other items.  The "Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients" label irks me to no end...I would really be happy to see some eco-labelling environmental policy tools in action.  Anyone else feel that way?

1 comment:

Aqua said...

Have you checked out the farmers' markets in our area? They're great. Produce is fantastic.