When I was first a chef in San Francisco which is the mega center for locally grown sustainable food,

I learned how important and rewarding it was to buy locally grown food from the farmers market. You may be asking yourself what exactly does locally grown mean? Most consumers assume when they buy something locally grown that it is grown right down the street or in the neighboring town. When retailers advertise locally grown they are thinking something quite different. Wal-Mart considers anything that was grown in the same state as it was sold to be locally grown. Whole Foods market considers anything that was grown within seven hours of its store to be local. But what I consider to be locally grown is when I can meet the farmer that picked the apple or harvested the pumpkin I just bought. You may be thinking that you eat whatever your parents buy but if you are not supporting yourself now you soon will be. I am asking you to take a stand for the health of your body and the wellbeing of our planet. Buying locally grown produce is one small step that we can do to benefit ourselves as well as the world around us. First I want to concentrate on the harmful side of industrial farming and its effects on the environment, then I will talk about the benefits of eating locally grown food in relation to our body and our economy then finally I will address the costs. Most food found in grocery stores is highly processed. Im not talking about the cup of noodles or canned chili; Im talking about the produce. The produce you come across at your neighborhood Safeway is often grown using hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, and genetic modification. Im sure you are all aware of what hormones, pesticides and antibiotics are but I want to clarify what a genetically modified organism or GMO is. A GMO refers to crop that is created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations this makes us more resistant to antibiotics, is

related to our increase in allergies and can even cause mutations within our genes. Most of the produce you find at your local supermarket has been gassed with nitrogen to induce the ripening process or waxed to try and preserve it. All of these procedures can have a detrimental effect on a humans health. We are not meant to be eating this way. Our body was built to process food in its natural state, we are not able to digest wax or consume pesticides that are meant to kill. Let me just put the thought into your head, that the fields where conventional food is grown doesnt have a bathroom. The bigger the field that needs to be harvested the longer the workers are out in the field. According to the Agricultural Worker Health Project, workers relieved themselves in or near the fields because there is no other option. There is no privacy and the urine or feces remained where it was dropped. It is impossible for workers to wash their hands and these people are touching our food. According to William Neuman of the New York Times these mass producing farms have lead to many recent outbreaks of [Link] and other health hazards because of their farming practices. We are not only slowly killing ourselves; we are also killing our environment. According to Michael Pollan, the author of The Ominvores Dilemma, when the average American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles from farm to plate. All of this transporting is destructive to our environment. Global climate change and war over resources are a few of the things resulting from all of this shipping and Mother Nature is fighting back. Buying local reduces the use of fossil fuels and helps protect the environment against harmful exhaust fumes. All of this travel requires hundreds of pounds of packaging and gassing to stimulate the ripening process, because the fruits and vegetable are picked far before they are actually ready for consumption then they sit in storage for weeks while the quality and nutrients begin to disintegrate.

At your local farmers market most produce has been picked less than 24 hours before it is sold to us, the consumer. We get it fresh, ripe and full of flavor. The fruits and vegetables are handled less and grown for taste, which means they are left in the fields longer to ripen naturally and the nutrients have a chance to get to their highest potency because they dont have to stand up to the abuse of shipping or industrial harvesting. Our local farmers market encourages us to discover new flavors and explore different foods. Large producers are trying to fill supermarkets with generic fruits and vegetables that are in demand by the masses, such as romaine lettuce, red apples and button mushrooms. At a farmers market like the one that occurs every Saturday in Danville you can reconnect with the earth, the seasons and the farmers. When you shop at your local farmers market you are getting the freshest, tastiest produce that the season has to offer. This is when its most abundant and least expensive. We all are lucky enough to live in the Bay Area where we have longer seasons and cherries are available for three month instead of one and artichokes are available for 5 months instead of two. In these tough economic times that we have been going through it is essential that we support our local farmers and our local economy. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency there are over 2 million farms in the United States and 90% of them are family owned. When you invest one dollar into the community by buying a couple of Gravenstein apples, that dollar stays in the local economy. If you choose to spend that one dollar on a couple of standard red apples at your neighborhood Safeway that dollar is taken out of the community and sent to Mexico or Chile. Supporting local farmers helps to preserve the few open spaces that we have left that havent been built up with homes or shopping centers. I am sure some of you remember this area before DVC and the other two schools were built here. There were rolling green hills that were spotted with grazing cows. This open land awards us the

opportunity to connect with our food. Such as how its grown, who grows it and how it reaches our dinner plate. I know what you are all thinking, its probably more expensive or you dont have the time to worry about buying local produce. I agree, prices vary between each farm just as prices vary between Safeway and Albertsons. A few weeks ago I went to my favorite farmers market in Livermore to get some root vegetables such as rutabagas, parsnips and carrots to go with the braised short ribs I was making. At one farm I saw them for three dollars a pound and just a few tents away I saw them for a dollar a pound. Even if you catch a sale at Safeway you cant get rutabagas for less than a dollar a pound. As for time, shopping at a farmers market is something you can do as little as once a week. Farmers markets are abundant in our area and it takes just about the same time to reach a farmers market as it does to reach a conventional supermarket. It may be just take a little more planning in the beginning of the week. I encourage you to eat local sustainable foods because its a commitment that you should make to yourself and keeping your body as healthy as possible for years to come. Its one contribution that we can all give the environment and economy, its not a selfless act but its something very simple that benefits everyone.