This illustrative video was produced for the Canadian “Eat Real, Eat Local” campaign, targeted at getting Canadian’s to support local agriculture, but the message is universal:  Eatling locally grown food is healthier, more environmentally friendly and better for your local economy.

In many cases these days our food travels further than we do. Instead of being grown on a local farm and grown for health and flavor, many of the foods we eat are engineered for durability and go through quite a production to make it to your plates. Many of the processes to prep these foods for the long journey can reduce the nutritional value of the foods, and the journey itself is heavy on carbon emitting fuel consumption. So why do we do it? Because it’s cheaper. In one respect centralized factory farming is more efficient, but more efficient at doing what? It’s more efficient at producing quantities of food. It is not more efficient at producing quality. Local farms are much more suited to be producing fresh, healthy, high quality foods, unfortunately they have a tough time competing with the agro-industry giants and our food production system is becoming more centralized and more remote.

As we’ve discussed before, you can make a difference by voting with your wallet and pocketbook at the grocery store checkout.  Food is a business and as consumers we have the power to say how and where our food is produced.  Take Walmart for example.  They have been buying more and more of their foods from local farms.  I’m not going to try and tell you it’s because they get a warm and fuzzy feeling from supporting local farms, the fact of the matter is they are responding to consumer demand and trying to save a buck on shipping costs.

For more ideas about what you can do to support local growers check out these resources:

• Local Harvest - a nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets, and other local food sources
• 100 Mile Diet - a challenge to make sure everything you eat comes from within a 100 mile radius of where you live
• Eat Local Challenge - a blog featuring ideas & news about eating locally

Also check out: 10 reasons to shop local & Food, Inc.