Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Buying 'local' at the supermarket?

"Locally grown" is the favorite tagline of produce in the supermarket ads. But rarely, if ever, do you get a real sense of how "local" or not your veggies actually are.

Reports The Star-Press in Muncie, your "local" produce in an Indiana grocery store might actually come from Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky or Michigan. Maybe I'm being too much of a word person, but "local" implies close by - couldn't stores be a little more accurate in saying "regional?"

According to Kevin Keener, a food process engineer at Purdue University, there is no standard definition of "locally grown."

Keener encourages shoppers to ask:
  • where the produce came from
  • how many miles the food traveled
  • what standards (such as organic, sustainable farming practices, farm volume) are used in selecting the local produce.

Looking for a little more "local" Indiana produce? Read on to find links to area farmers markets and more.

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