Let’s stop destroying our world, the local market, and our bodies: it’s time to focus on eating local foods.
Yes, it’s very hard to resist going to large corporate stores such as Wal-Mart, Costco, and Safeway, because it’s cheaper and more convenient than buying local. Most students are tied to budgets, but how many students would rather care about cheaper prices with convenience than our environment, the local economy, and our health?
Most large corporate grocery stores import goods from a variety of developing countries with cheaper labour and massive production capacities, or squeeze our local farmers’ sweat and blood with unreasonable contracts with them.
Long-distance imported food transport produces a lot of emissions, destroying our earth.
How about local farmers? Only the few who own larger farms can even have a chance to sell their goods in chain stores.
The quality of the food being trucked in from other countries and provinces is much lower than local foods because they are going bad while travelling a long distance.
Many of us have experienced throwing out cheap vegetables that you bought in big grocery stores because they went bad quicker in our refrigerators. Some of them aren’t even fresh when they reach the stores.
So, if we’re aware of all negative effects, why not buy local foods? Is it because it’s inconvenient and too expensive?
Well, as Camosun College students, we are very lucky. Farmbox brings local foods from farmers onto campus and sells them to students.
Local and organic foods with affordable prices and convenience! So let’s be more interested in local foods and buy them so we can feel great about ourselves.
By buying local foods not only can we save the world from the pollution produced by long-distance food transport, but we can also vitalize our local economy and promote our health.
Let’s think about our future, the next generation. Do we really want to feed our children only long-distance foods from only a few countries, like China or Russia, after local farms fail and we can’t find local foods anymore?
Let’s avoid this terrible situation that may happen in the future. Do not let this happen. Instead, let’s leave future generations a sustainable environment and a healthier and stronger local economy, as well as a variety of food choices from local markets. We can do it by buying local foods.