Looking for easy, low-cost ways to improve your quality of living right now? You should be able to look no further than down the street to start.
Crawfordsville, luckily, does offer two locations to get locally grown produce and locally raised and fed meat. One of them being the Four Seasons Local Market on Main Street and the other, the Crawfordsville Farmers Market, being almost directly perpendicular on Pike Street. Though it is great that the town offers more than one local farmer’s market, the range of people who may visit and use the market on a regular basis would likely grow if the two markets were spread out more, so that each could reach a side of town that may be on the outskirts. Many other communities are starting to offer a more continuous option of healthy choices across the area. Whether that be street vendors, markets, pop up shops, delivery services, etc. All these methods are intended to increase the access and availability of the abundance of nutrients offered in locally produced foods.
First, let’s look at some of the most profound benefits that eating locally has on and within our bodies:
• More flavorful items due to the farmers ability to allow the fruit or vegetable to ripen longer. As opposed to the produce having to be transported and losing some of its authentic flavor.
• More nutrients. Fruits and veggies naturally lose some of their nutritious value during transportation and processing of them onto the shelves at grocery stores. For example, vitamin C is important for healthy skin and tissue, and it begins to degrade shortly after harvesting. Another important source, antioxidants, begins to decline its value in foods during storage. Antioxidants are important in fighting reactive molecules that contribute to disease.
Next, let’s focus on a few other impacts that buying, making or eating locally grown products has on our health. This time, looking at our external rather than internal environments:
• Carbon footprint decreases tremendously. When we keep our produce within the community, the gas emissions that pollute the earth are not needed, as our food does not have anywhere else it needs to go. This saves our planet and protects us from potential disease and complications.
• Little to no packaging, which contributes to plastic waste. When our foods do not have to undergo processing, we eliminate the need for unnecessary use of plastic, used to seal and transport the products.
• Healthier ecosystems. Eating and growing locally is just another way to protect the vast amount of open farmland and greenery we have mixed within the outskirts and spaces of our county. We build these environments up by boosting biodiversity, and protecting those pollinators that promote our clean air, water and soil.
What are other cities and communities doing to spread the use of locally grown products you may ask? Well, in New York City the department of Health and Mental Hygiene has implemented many initiatives, one of which being something known as “Green Carts.” These were designed to allow fresh fruits and veggies to reach places that may not have usual access, especially in those low-income neighborhoods. They were able to implement this into all of their boroughs, allocating a specific number of carts for each, with the help of surveys given to residents that showed a high percentage of them not consuming fresh produce weekly or even monthly.
Starting the conversation and creating awareness are important steps the community needs to, and easily can, take to get these changes rolling and lasting for the betterment of everyone’s overall health and wellbeing.
Autumn Kandt, Purdue University ‘22, is an intern with the Montgomery County Health Department.
