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Why Eat Locally Grown Food?
For many years, naturopaths, nutritionists and other alternative health care practitioners have advocated eating locally grown food. Yet, few people have any idea why local foods might be better than foods grown further away or what the health benefits could possibly be. The purpose of this article is to explore the health effects of locally grown foods, looking at both folk wisdom and more recent scientific information.
Origins of the theory
The original notion that locally grown foods are better for health dates back to at least the 1930s when the late psychic Edgar Cayce recommended such foods in his trance readings. While in trance, Cayce maintained that locally produced foods helped the body to adjust to the climate and environment in the area where the individual resided. Of particular interest, Cayce noted that local foods would be less likely to cause allergy, although he gave no reason why.[1]
Although Cayce’s theory has not been tested, there may be something to it. It is well known that plants change their composition in response to climactic cues, such as the amount of light and temperature.[2] Moreover, the trace mineral content of plants will mirror the mineral content of the soil in which they were grown.[3] Consequently, the composition of fruits and vegetables grown in California will be different from those grown in Iowa or Florida. It is possible that these that occur in plants due to soil and climate might affect our health, as Cayce asserted, but no one knows for sure.
Nutrient losses due to shipping
In the years that followed Cayce, local foods were recommended mostly for the reasons that he gave. But there are other reasons that locally grown foods are better for your health. A major one is that local foods have not been shipped long distances. Crops that are destined for shipping are often picked prior to maturity. This is particularly true of fruit. When picked before they are ripe, fruits may have far less of beneficial nutrients such as vitamin C. For example, apples and apricots picked when they were half-ripe contained less than a third of the vitamin C found in the fully ripe fruit.[4]
During shipping, there may be additional losses of vitamins due to exposure to heat or light.[4] But even if shipping conditions are ideal, shipping takes time, and time is the enemy of vitamins. The vitamin content of fruits and vegetables starts declining soon after they are picked. For example, in experiments performed by the US Department of Agriculture, vitamin C content of leafy greens began declining at harvest, and a significant portion of the original vitamin C content was lost within a few days.[5]
The longer a food item is shipped, the greater is the potential loss of nutrients. Depending on where in the country a person lives, there might be a long shipping time for out-of-state produce. For example, lettuce coming from California to Pennsylvania through the normal trucking routes takes at least several days to reach its destination, whereas local produce may reach the consumer as soon as the day or the day after it was harvested, with more nutrients intact. Produce shipped from Central America or other foreign countries may take even longer to reach consumers and be in worse shape nutritionally.
Exposure to microorganisms
In addition to a loss of nutrients, shipping fruits and vegetables grown in distant locations exposes a person’s gastrointestinal tract to unfamiliar microorganisms that can undermine health or even make a person sick. A person’s gut learns to deal with local microorganisms, but often cannot cope with unfamiliar ones from other localities. This is why people get sick easily when they travel to foreign countries. During shipping, unfamiliar microorganisms have time to grow and multiply so that there may be a lot of them in fruits or vegetables by the time they reach the consumer.
For some people, this may cause gastrointestinal problems, and sometimes serious illness. There are recent documented cases of people in the United States and Canada becoming ill from eating foods shipped from Central America. In the spring of 1996 and 1997, outbreaks of diarrhea were traced to raspberries grown in Guatemala. Other outbreaks have been attributed to mesclun lettuce and various fresh fruits and vegetables. [6]
Pesticides
Foods shipped from foreign countries have another problem as well. Many of these foods have been grown with excessive quantities of chemical pesticides. In developing countries, farmers are often illiterate and cannot read the instruction labels so they harm both their own health and that of those who will later eat the food by using excessive amounts of pesticides. A further problem is that pesticides that are banned in the United States are sold overseas. These more dangerous pesticides are used on crops, and these crops are then shipped back to us As a result of these pesticide practices in foreign countries, fruits and vegetables shipped from overseas may have a very high content of particularly harmful pesticides.[7 & 8]
Finding locally grown food
Locally grown foods are sometimes available in supermarkets, but they usually are not labeled, so it may be necessary to ask the produce manager. More reliable sources are farmer’s markets, farm stands and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. In CSA, consumers contract directly with a farmer to receive produce on a regular basis for a whole season. [9] If you are looking for a farmer’s market or CSA, the US Department of Agriculture maintains lists that are available on the internet at: www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarketsa and www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/ .
In addition, the Biodynamics Association maintains a list of CSAs at: www.biodynamics.com. These methods of buying directly from the farmer are often less expensive than conventional grocery stores, and offer the opportunity for direct communication with the people growing your food.
Conclusion
In conclusion, locally grown foods, at the very least, can provide higher vitamin content and less exposure to harmful microorganisms and pesticides. And, if Edgar Cayce is correct, locally grown foods may also improve health by helping the body adjust to local conditions.
Dr. Worthington has a Master of Science degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in International Health with a specialty in nutrition from Johns Hopkins University, School of Public Health. In addition, she has studied herbal and nutritional medicine with several herbalists and traditional healers. Dr. Worthington has 13 years of experience in various aspects of nutrition including research, community nutrition, nutrition education and clinical work with individual patients using nutritional and herbal therapies. She is currently in private practice in Washington, DC and writes on health related subjects. She is an Advisory Board member of PPNF.
REFERENCES
- Bolton B (1997). An Edgar Cayce Encyclopedia of Foods for Health and Healing. A.R.E. Press. Virginia Beach VA. p. 483.
- Somers F, Beeson KC, (1948). The influence of climate and fertilizer practices upon the vitamin and mineral content of vegetables. Advances in Food Research 1:291-324.
- Allway WH (1984). Plants as sources of nutrients for people: an overview. In: Crops as Sources of Nutrients for Humans (Welch RM, Gabelman WH, Krai DM, and Hawkins SL, eds.). Soil Science Society of America, Crop Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI. pp. 1-8.
- Hornick SB (1992). Factors affecting the nutritional quality of crops. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 7:63-68.
- Hornick SB. Personal communication.
- Gershon MD (1998). The Second Brain. Harper Collins Publishers, New York NY. pp. 151 -53.
- Rola AC, Pingali PL (1993). Pesticides, Rice Productivity, and Farmers’ Health. World Resources Institute. Washington DC.
- Weir D, Schapiro M (1981). Circle of Poison. Institute for Food and Development Policy. San Francisco, CA. pp. 3-9, 77-85.
- DeMuth S (1993). Defining community supported agriculture. www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/csadef.html
Published in Health & Healing Wisdom
Summer 2000 | Volume 24, Number 2
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