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Why Buy Local?
With Buy Local, we'll provide information on what, when, why and how to buy locally. KPLU has created Buy Local not only as a resource for our listeners, but also because buying local supports local farmers, the local economy, the environment and our community. With more people shifting towards greener lifestyles, we'd like to help. Here you'll find information about local foods in season, Washington farmers markets, recipes, events, and more.

Why Buy Local?

There are plenty of reasons to buy local! Your food decisions affect everything from the environment to the local business community.

• Environment. Did you know that the average grocery store's produce travels 1,500 miles to get to your local supermarket? Such a food distribution system creates an unhealthy reliance on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter into our atmosphere. Overabundance of these gasses contribute to growing problems such as climate change, acid rain, smog, and air pollution.
  
  Moreover, the industrial farms from which most produce is shipped use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides - major sources of air and water pollution. In contrast, small, local farms tend to be run by farmers, who work to preserve their land by keeping it as pollution-free as possible.
  
  
• Health. Most produce in the US is picked 4 to 7 days before it's placed on the shelf. Fresh produce this old has lost a significant amount of nutrients in aging processes. Locally grown food - likely to arrive and be purchased at the market just a day or two after harvest - retains its nutrients. It also has less of an opportunity to wilt and rot, and doesn't make use of preservatives—which are potentially hazardous to human health.
  
  
• Economy. Local farms are more likely than industrial farms to put money back into the local economy by purchasing feed, seed and other materials from other local businesses—thus strengthening the economic base of the community. These purchases contribute to a relatively small environmental impact concerning their transportation. Industrial farms are more apt to order in bulk from distant companies (even overseas), which take a high environmental toll through shipping and packaging. Industrial farms also tend to bring down local property values with the intense odors they produce.
  
  
• Community. When you buy locally, you get to meet the person that grows your food. This can give you insight into the seasons, the weather, and what it means to raise the food you subsist on. And of course, you're supporting their livelihood. With fewer than 1 million Americans now claiming farming as their primary occupation, farmers are fast becoming a vanishing breed.

Did you know...

• someone paid $51,000 for a Starkspur Golden Delicious apple tree in Yakima?
  
  
• Washington ranks #1 in aquaculture production?
  
  
• the Stayment-Winesap apple has such delicate skin that pickers have to use cotton gloves so not to damage it?
  
  
• Okanogan county produces 90% of the world supply of Baby's Breath?
  
  
• the Drueger Pepper Garden in Wapato raises 63 different varieties of peppers?
  
  
• wheat is the number one farm export from Washington ports?
  
  
• the first Pacific oysters were planted in Willapa Bay in 1928?
  
  
• the Mystic Lake Dairy is the largest goat milk dairy in Washington?
  
  
• the Olympic oyster is the world smallest edible oyster?
  
  
• the orange mint moth stimulates mint oil production?
  
  
• The Carnation Company in Kent produced the first evaporated milk in 1890?
  
  
• most of Washington's wine producing area are on the same latitude as the Burgundy and Bordeaux provinces of France?
  
  
• Walla Walla sweet onions do not cause tears when chopped?
  
  
• more than 65% of the nations red raspberries are produced in Whatcom County?
  
  
• Grant county is the #1 county in the nation of sweet corn production?
  

Buying local food supports many aspects of our society and is a much-needed shift toward sustainability. Getting informed is the first step - so take some time to check out Buy Local!

by Brandon Gorrell

*Factoids Courtesy of Washington Department of Agriculture