Why Local?

	Modern Agriculture / Food Production	Most CSA’s
Fossil Fuel Energy Use (depletion of a valuable resource and contribution to global climate change)	Several very large, basically corporate farms, ship produce many miles to a distribution center, where again the produce is shipped to other markets. Some produce items come from places on the other side of the world. Shipping produce often requires refrigeration, adding to fossil fuel consumption. As Barbara Kingsolver estimates in Small Wonder transporting 5 cal of strawberry from CA to NY takes 435 calories of fossil fuel. And this is just transportation, not including other aspects of production and packaging. Other estimates hold that the average meal in the US has traveled 2000 miles. One good example was illustrated on World News Tonight, in which they were tracking down E. coli in green onions sold in Taco Bell. The news group determined that the onions were grown in southern CA, then shipped to the northeastern US to be washed, and then redistributed to all the Taco Bells. Thus, Taco Bells in southern CA were using onions grown nearby, but first shipped across the country to be washed and then back.	Locally grown produce is also consumed locally, with minimum time between the farm and the consumer and minimum refrigeration. This results in a MUCH lower consumption of energy to get your food to you.
Economics	This system has been slowly driving smaller family farms into extinction. As I recall off the top of my head, the average annual income from family farms in the US is approximately 5k per year. Most of the money the consumer pays goes to the companies that put their logo on the product and advertise it, not the farmer. Small farms cannot make ends meet. Suicide rates among small family farmers in the past several decades have skyrocketed. They find themselves facing losing the farm that has been in their families for generations. Large corporate farms are taking over and they too are not making money on producing food. Instead huge government subsidies are often the only source of profit.	For CSA’s, subscription is directly to the farmer. All money the consumer pays for the products go directly to the farmer. As such, the farmer can make a living. For most CSA’s, subscription is fairly long term, so the farmer is assured a decent income regardless of any crop failures. The community shares in any bounty or any losses. Due to this, some small family farms are switching to the CSA. Local food consumption also keeps the money in the local economy instead of being redistributed to remote lands.
Pesticides	Typically very intensive use of pesticides. In this country, these are somewhat regulated, but abuses may occur. When we import produce from other countries the danger intensifies. Even recently, US companies were (and may still be) marketing DDT to other, mostly 3^rd world countries. This substance has been banned in the US. Many pesticides are not excreted by your body, but rather build up in your fatty tissues. Organisms that eat higher on the food chain, tend to get higher concentrations of these substances. This is one major factor that caused the endangerment of the Bald Eagle. While experts may say that the effects of these substances on humans, at typical levels, is unclear, testing the effects of pesticides on humans is somewhat unethical… thus the relative dangers of pesticide ingestion are not well known, and could conceivably be quite bad (especially considering low levels on a single ingested item, may concentrate when many are eaten).	Typically not used in most CSA’s, with no possibility for ingestion by humans or harm to other animals.
Taste	To illustrate, notice that those so-called vine ripened tomatoes often seen in the regular supermarket are still on their vines and probably were sprayed with ethylene gas to turn them red while on those vines, which for some time had been separated from a living plant. This is just supposition as I am not sure of this particular case, but it is an example of the kind of processes used. A lot of supermarket produce is just tasteless.	I think I can tell a substantial difference. Just try a fresh organic tomato that actually ripened on a living plant and picked the day before (or that very same day even).
Affordability (Money only)	Although non-organic typical produce can be extremely cheap, it is artificially so, due to high subsidies. The externalized costs are much higher. For a good quick overview, check out www.truecostoffood.org. Additionally, I contend that most people that eat this way buy many processed foods, which are more expensive than preparing foods from scratch. Also, organic non-local produce can often be fairly expensive.	Since the money typically passes directly from you to the farmer, it is generally quite affordable. Additionally, since you are doing more cooking from basic ingredients, you tend to consume less of the expensive, pre-processed foods. It seems to me that at the minimum it is about the same price, or maybe even cheaper.
Personal Connection	I recall hearing of a recent survey of children, where a fairly high percentage believed that produce actually originally came from a grocery store. They had no conception of how that food had come to arrive at the grocery store, nor what kinds of foods typically grow in that region during that season. I contend that few Americans ever really consider the source of their food or how it came to be on their plates.	How many people can say they have personally communicated with the farmer that produces their food? I can. I know a bit about her, have seen pictures of the farm, and learned of some of her basic farming practices. I have been invited to come by.
Intensity & Sustainability	Very Intense. Typically soil is over fertilized with non-sustainable, fossil fuel derived inorganic fertilizers. Soil is also typically compacted, destroying soil structure, promoting erosion, and partly inducing a requirement of additional fertilizer.	Typically much less intense.
Yield	Typically a bit higher per unit of man-hours.	Typically appears a bit lower due to avoidance of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. However, there are some interesting methods of organic farming that can produce high yields (e.g. Biodynamic). Additionally, the yield comparisons are typically made per unit of man-hours, not per area of land. Local organic agriculture can actually produce much higher total yields of all relevant products combined per land area, but these farms typically employ more workers because of their avoidance of large-scale industrial agricultural techniques, thus making yield per man-hours lower. It is often mentioned that we could not feed the world if we converted to local, small-scale industrial agriculture. However, our problems of starvation are not due to a lack of production. We produce way more than the world needs. In fact, small-scale local farms are the only thing that can consistently provide food in these areas of starvation. The problem is all the farms in the areas are being pressured into large industrial monocultures for global export, making only a very few very wealthy at the expense of others.
Consumer Effort	Typically very low, except that if one wishes to reduce pesticide levels everything must be peeled. Shopping is required.	Higher. Picking up your share can be relatively easy (as with my CSA) or more difficult. Typically no shopping is required. Most of your time and effort is in CLEANING, prepping, and cooking. There are some tricks you can pick-up over time which cut down on this.
Other health benefits	Many people that use this system do not ingest an adequate quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables every day.	The plethora of fresh produce greatly encourages you to eat much more fruits and veggies each day. Fruits and vegetables are important for a variety of reasons, from enough fiber for a healthy cardiovascular and digestive system, to the cancer and skin protective antioxidants.
Education and new experiences	Typically the kinds of produce offered at the supermarket are unchanging and every item looks the same (usually genetically engineered to be that way, I recall something like 70% of supermarket produce is GE).	Encourages you to try new foods with a seemingly endless variety of heirloom veggies and things you may have never heard of before (e.g. sorrel or curly endive or beautiful chioga beets).